Steering Stories. Confronting Narratives of Driving Automation through Contestational Artifacts

Document Title

Steering Stories: Confronting Narratives of Driving Automation through Contestational Artifacts

Document Information

• Subject Area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Design Research, Social Impact Analysis of Autonomous Driving Technology
• Keywords: Contestational Design, Technological Narratives, Critical Design, Autonomous Driving, Political Design

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems and Challenges:

  • Public narratives about autonomous driving are oversimplified, portraying human drivers as the root problem and promoting technology as the solution.
  • Mainstream narratives exhibit extreme binary perspectives: either overly optimistic ("autonomous driving is salvation") or pessimistic ("autonomous driving brings risks and costs"), limiting discussions on more complex issues.
  • Current research on autonomous driving acknowledges social, technical, and cultural complexities, but this knowledge struggles to effectively influence public discourse or policymakers.

• Research Significance:

  • Narratives surrounding autonomous driving technology shape public attitudes and policymaker decisions. Challenging these narratives can help achieve a more comprehensive understanding of their social impact.
  • Breaking the myth of technological determinism can promote more democratic, objective technological innovation and transportation design.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • The social sciences have begun deconstructing autonomous driving narratives, but much of this knowledge remains confined to academia and is underutilized by policymakers.
  • The authors propose using design practices, particularly contestational design, to challenge mainstream narratives and provide stakeholders with opportunities to critically reflect on these narratives.

Solution

• Proposed Methods or Solutions:

  • The authors employed a set of contestational design artifacts—symbolic steering wheel designs representing four alternative scenarios for autonomous driving.
  • These artifacts were used in focus group discussions as tools to facilitate stakeholders' critical thinking about autonomous driving technology.

• Innovative Aspects of the Solution:

  • Integrating contestational design with participatory research methods to inspire stakeholders to reflect on the narrative assumptions underlying autonomous driving technology.
  • Using design artifacts to trigger cognitive estrangement and ambiguity, thereby encouraging critical discussions and creative thinking.

• Implementation Steps and Key Techniques:

  1. Artifact Development: Iteratively designing steering wheel artifacts based on the intuition of design researchers and the disciplinary backgrounds of team members (e.g., cognitive robotics, computer science).
  2. Focus Group Setup: Organizing online and offline discussions, inviting technology experts, designers, and policymakers to participate.
  3. Data Collection and Analysis: Video recording focus group discussions and employing deductive and open coding thematic analysis to extract key arguments.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Results:

  • Initial themes in focus group discussions often aligned with mainstream positive/negative narratives.
  • Significant shifts in discussion emerged during the activity, expanding from narrow topics like safety and feasibility to more complex perspectives.
  • Three key narrative tensions were summarized:
    1. Globalized stories vs. localized technological contexts.
    2. Inclusive vehicles vs. exclusionary issues.
    3. Driverless shared mobility services vs. public transportation.

• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  • Provided stakeholders with opportunities to critically reflect on mainstream narratives.
  • Encouraged collaborative evaluation of autonomous driving technology, including its social impact, ethical responsibilities, and technological benefits.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Discussions inspired by design artifacts led stakeholders to explore new perspectives on human-vehicle relationships in autonomous driving, introducing the concept of "driving partnerships."
  • Participants debated the necessity of autonomous driving technology and how to balance social equity and resource allocation.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations include: unclear scalability and long-term impact of the discussion activities; inability to fully address individual participants' worldviews.
  • Future directions:
    1. Conduct further experiments to analyze how design artifacts create lasting impacts.
    2. Expand the scope of discussions to include more dimensions, such as cultural and geopolitical perspectives.
    3. Combine policy and legal actions to curb excessive industry promotion in mainstream narratives.

Conclusion

This study successfully inspired stakeholders to critically reflect on autonomous driving narratives through contestational design and participatory methods. It provides methodological insights and specific design recommendations, offering new pathways for future technological narratives and policymaking.