Tennant, C;
Neels, C;
Parkhurst, G;
Jones, P;
Mirza, S;
Stilgoe, J;
(2021)
Code, Culture, and Concrete: Self-Driving Vehicles and the Rules of the Road.
Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
, 3
, Article 710478. 10.3389/frsc.2021.710478.
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Abstract
Behaviour on the road is ordered by a range of norms, rules, laws, and infrastructures. The introduction of self-driving vehicles onto the road opens a debate about the rules that should govern their actions and how these should be integrated with, or lead to the modification of, existing road rules. In this paper, we analyse the current rules of the road, with a particular focus on the UK's Highway Code, in order to inform future rulemaking. We consider the full range of laws, norms, infrastructures, and technologies that govern interactions on the road and where these came from. The rules have a long history and they contribute to a social order that privileges some modes of mobility over others, reinforcing a culture of automobility that shapes lives, livelihoods and places. The introduction of self-driving vehicles, and the digital code on which they depend, could reorder the culture and concrete of our roads, by flattening the multidimensional rules of the road, hardening rules that are currently soft and standardising across diverse contexts. Future rule changes to accommodate self-driving vehicles may enable increases in safety and accessibility, but the trade-offs demand democratic debate
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Code, Culture, and Concrete: Self-Driving Vehicles and the Rules of the Road |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/frsc.2021.710478 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2021.710478 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2021 Tennant, Neels, Parkhurst, Jones, Mirza and Stilgoe. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | digital highway code, legal pluralism, automated vehicles, self-driving cars, rules, governance |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Science and Technology Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10140006 |
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