The politics and imaginary of ‘autonomous vehicles’: a participatory journey

The Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) pilot project set out to explore the alternative mobility imaginaries of participants. These imaginaries challenged the automated vision of the future presented by vehicle and technology companies. This paper takes a post-normal science and digital anthropology approach to the question of automated technology and the role that citizens have in shaping mobility future(s). Through narrative analysis, interviews with stakeholders, and Futures Making Ateliers, this citizen engagement journey deconstructs the technological promises of CAVs, as well as their plausibility and desirability from the point of view of the participants of the participatory journey. Our findings suggest that the technology is solving a different problem than the mobility problem as articulated in policy documents. By investigating the matters of concern of participants, the problem of mobility was redefined in their own terms, and alternative futures were explored. We use the concept of MacGuffin as means to explore the wider relevance of CAVs in mobility futures.