Design for a future with driverless vehicles – acceptance and adoption

As driverless vehicle technology approaches maturity, it is not clear whether the mindset of individuals and society is ready to accommodate and adopt the advantages and challenges of large-scale driverless vehicle use. Researchers and designers working at the Intelligent Mobility Design Centre (IMDC) of the Royal College of Art (RCA) have been conducting people-centred research to gather expressed and unarticulated viewpoints, hopes and fears of enthusiastic and reluctant driverless car adopters and opponents. We track their expectations of the possible futures of in-car life in driverless vehicles for the purpose of generating driverless car designs to satisfy individual car users’ demands.