This year-long exploration of autonomous vehicles delved into questions of implementation, ethics, pedestrian safety, and access to information. The discursive design objects that follow initiate some of the conversations that are necessary to have as informed urban citizens accommodating a new mode of transport.

Envisioning Autonomy

This poster series comprises a kind of visual curriculum, both to bring users up to speed on the capabilities and technologies behind autonomous vehicles, and to start to tease at some of the problematics surrounding the implementation of partially autonomous vehicles in an environment that only partially supports their use. For example, how might we solve the problem of sidewalk-occupying delivery robots being unable to navigate pedestrian crosswalks efficiently? What ethical correlations emerge among cultural groups for the resolution of no-win ethical dilemmas where harm is unavoidable?

In gallery space, the posters are hung in two rows of six. The exhibit is structured “in curriculum order”, to best lead the viewer on a journey of progressive disclosure. Animations emulating several concepts from the posters play on a loop at the rightmost end of the space.

These interactive animations emulate augmented reality presence at intersections near OCAD University in Toronto. By overlaying citizens’ existing places of work with speculative elements, we reduce the cognitive distance from present day to possible futures. These animations are controlled entirely by user scrolling, giving them ultimate flexibility to ingest unexpected ideas at their own pace.