Autonomous Last Mile

Purpose and goal:

In a future filled with autonomous vehicles, there will still be instances where human intervention is necessary to ensure safe and convenient mobility. When most of the simple tasks are easily handled by an algorithm, the edge cases will necessarily be complex, time sensitive, or outside the norm. In these situations, remote operators play a crucial role, stepping in when the autonomous vehicle (AV) encounters scenarios it cannot safely or swiftly resolve.

Expected results and effects:

This project is aimed at designing a XR interactive vision of a future where these current trends come together to create an unequal, unsafe, and unwanted vision of our future society. By exposing people today to possible future situation where they must quickly perform only the most stressful and complex of mobility tasks, in quick succession, under economic and social constraints that give them no other option we hope to encourage designers, developers and end users of these technologies to ensure that it does not come to pass.

Approach and implementation:

This project will bring together designers, philosophers, and technologists to develop new visions of the future as fully immersive Extended Reality (XR) experiences as a commentary on the current state of AVs and their potential future use cases. We will also highlight the operational challenges and the often-overlooked human labor essential for making these vehicles function effectively.