Future Mobility Scenarios with Design Fiction: Autonomous Vehicles as Social Agents

Abstract

This article aims to envisage a future world with Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) from a speculative perspective and uses design fiction as a method. Even though there are future studies about how AVs are going to be operators in the traffic by taking the role of the driver, this article suggests that AVs are going to be referred not only as transportation vehicles but also, they will become a part of social life through their increased agencies. We argue that this might be a significant concern for the areas that are in relation with the design of AVs considering socio-technical transitions towards future. Two design fiction workshops with designers were organised to develop future scenarios including AVs. As a result, the scenarios created by designers were analysed and characteristics of the scenarios were identified considering the social and contextual aspects of the storyworlds. Finally, the study discusses design considerations for AVs based on the future contexts and lifestyles as well as the social role that AVs can fill by changing the meaning of journey in the future scenarios.