What Will People Do in Driverless Cars? Researchers Want to Stop Misbehavior Before It Starts

Pablo Bazilinskiy still can’t believe he was on PornHub for work. The assistant professor at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands has spent more than a decade researching AI-powered interactions between humans and robots. But this time, he typed “public transportation” into the search bar of the site’s “amateur” section. The search returned 297 results.

“It’s hard to predict people,” Bazilinskiy says. That is why he studies human behavior. His online search was part of research into what passengers might do inside driverless robotaxis, which have begun carrying passengers in a handful of countries, including the United States.

There is a long history of people behaving antisocially in quasi-private spaces such as trains, airplanes and automobiles, as well as in fully public places. Think of the limousine scene in Risky Business, the so-called Mile High Club and the Chicago “L.”

But what happens when riders are alone in a vehicle with no authority figure who can say, “Hey, stop!” What do they do? And can people be persuaded to stop before they start?

Why Researchers Are Studying Behavior in Self-Driving Cars

This week, Bazilinskiy and academics specializing in systems engineering, computer science, psychology and tourism studies are hosting an industry workshop focused on those questions. Their central challenge is provocative: “How do we stop people from driving themselves in self-driving cars?”

The researchers believe that examining sex in autonomous vehicles could help the mobility industry “stress test” the role cars may eventually play as communal spaces where social norms are practiced every day.

The event focuses on prevention. Organizer and engineering psychologist Aleksandros Loutsitsas admits the researchers are “on the side of parents and the elderly. We’re not the dispassionate people here.”

The organizers do not want people having sex in self-driving cars. They are concerned that such behavior could give a potentially positive technology a damaging reputation.

“We want automated mobility solutions to be accepted and trusted by the public,” Loutsitsas says. Automated driving could benefit older people, children and people with disabilities by helping them travel more quickly and reach destinations that may otherwise be difficult to access.

The technology could eventually expand beyond private robotaxis to public transportation, where many different kinds of passengers could travel safely and comfortably. “We want automated mobility solutions to be seen as fair, serious and social,” he says.

Could Robotaxis Become New Social Spaces?

Loutsitsas’s biggest fear is that self-driving cars could be used by gangsters, drug users and hedonists who visit several islands in his home country of Greece. “Do you know ‘Bambas’?” he says. “We don’t want that.”

The four-hour “Rise and Shine” workshop begins at 8:30 a.m. during an industry conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference focuses on how people interact with vehicles and larger mobility systems.

The organizers expect participants from a wide range of industries, not just academia. Gothenburg is home to Volvo Cars and technology supplier SmartEye, while BMW and Google are conference sponsors.

Participants will be asked to develop physical and design interventions that discourage people from engaging in unwanted behavior inside autonomous vehicles. The organizers say the workshop will focus on preventing consensual sexual interactions.

Design Ideas to Discourage Sexual Activity in Autonomous Vehicles

Loutsitsas, who studies human-machine interaction, expects participants to come up with creative ideas. Could a vehicle become transparent from the top? Could a light begin blinking when its technology detects disapproved behavior? The organizers plan to publish a paper based on the workshop’s results.

The focus on sex is deliberately eye-catching, made more compelling because it represents the “elephant in the room” for people considering how humans will interact with machines in the future, Bazilinskiy says.

But the research could help designers, companies and lawmakers develop ways to make shared spaces—including public self-driving buses—safer and more socially acceptable.

If researchers can prevent sex in autonomous vehicles, they may also learn how to prevent robbery, bullying and murder. “This example could be useful for industry and academia to use to design other things,” Bazilinskiy says.