Speculative design of
future AI self-driving car
- Styling, Energy and Surveillance
Master’s Thesis
Abstract
At present, the technology of artificial intelligence and self-driving is highly developed. The scientific community's earlier research on self-driving cars focused on the positive benefits of this technology. However, every new technology that subverts human life has a dark side, and driverless cars are no exception.
AI self-driving cars are a product of the User-Centered Design(UCD) system, but this design approach may benefit some users and cause confusion to other users, and even suppresses imaginative and poetic ideas. Therefore, we need designs that are compatible with multiple perspectives, break away from frame thinking, and stimulate thought. Through this design, we can guide, reflect and speculate on our imagination for the future.
Therefore, from the viewpoint of Speculative Design (Dunne and Raby, 2013), this research uses design methods such as Design Fiction (Bleecker, 2009) and Critical Design (Dunne and Raby, 2013) to speculate and reflect on the possible impact of overlapping factors such as future technology and social context on the future human society and environment. And according to the Smart Vehicle Human-Computer Interaction Design Trend White book (2018) released by Baidu Artificial Intelligence Interactive Design Institute (2018) as an entry point for this research, and extend to design prototypes based on the development of real science and technology.
AI self-driving cars will be everywhere in future human society. Therefore, this study hopes to design a series containing – Styling theme, Energy theme, and Surveillance theme from the perspective of speculative design. Through the above three different “Diegetic Prototypes” (Bruce Sterling, 2005; 2009) to show the potential crisis that comes from AI self-driving technology. By using these “Diegetic Prototypes”, let us imagine more in a "first-person" perspective, more incorporating diverse cultural backgrounds, story situations, and liberating the limitations of the original life. With the microscopic carrier such as self-driving, we can display and speculate on the macro-thinking of future technology life, and explore the question of the future AI self-driving technology world.
Keywords: AI Self-Driving Car, Human-Computer Interaction, Speculative Design, Design Fiction, Critical design, Diegetic Prototype
Materials
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Critical Design
Speculative Design was proposed by British RCA professor and designer Dunne and Raby (2013) in their 2013 book Speculative Everything. Speculative design can be thought of as a "thought experiment" that conveys ideas through design, rather than narrative or a coherent physical world. Speculative Design does not aim at solving problems, but explores them. It originates from the concept of "Critical Design" also proposed by the authors of the above-mentioned books, and the starting point of critical design comes from concerns about blind optimism in science and technology. Such design methods will challenge existing thinking and affect people's perception. In the process of interacting with the design of Critical Design, people can be inspired to think about some of the practical and complex problems. In contrast to Critical Design, Speculative Design is more open and speculative.
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Design Fiction
Further discussing speculative design, it also covers the theory of design illusion. Bleecker (2009) explained that fiction is based on fact. For example, Science Fiction was born based on scientific reality. Design Fiction is a comprehensive science, composed of facts and fictions. Design Fiction generates the power of science fiction through design creation to enable people to release the inherent limitations from reality.
Science fiction writer Bruce Sterling (2005, 2009) used three literary-related words “fiction”, “diegesis”, and “suspension of disbelief” to construct this concept. Explain Design Fiction as: using "Diegetic Prototypes" to liberate people from questioning future technology and the world. In contrast that Design Fiction focuses on praising the advancement of science and technology, Speculative Design also contains questions about the limitations and negative effects of technology.
Methods
The overall research method of this study in the future is divided into five parts. The first three parts are three stages of speculative design method analysis, self-driving car case analysis, and Design Brief: first, analyze the case of speculative design and analyze its design method. Then analyze the issues related to self-driving cars. Finally, organize the above information into a Design Brief, and find an entry point that can be extended to explore or used as a thought design idea. The fourth part is the main design creation part: through a series of design prototypes to speculate on the cultural impact brought by driving technology and visualize the problem points.
The last part is the discussion and conclusion: through the exhibition works, to understand the current car users' imagination and feedback of future cars, to get user opinions close to the actual situation, and use their differences and deficiencies as the direction of future creative research.
Design method Chart
Design process transformation
Results
1.Design theme planning
The Design Brief of this research is based on the literature on smart car human-computer interaction design trends (Baidu-Hunan University Intelligent Design and Interactive Experience Joint Innovation Lab, 2018), self-driving car revolution (Lipson, 2016), and other literary materials.
Sort out three issues to speculate on the design of AI self-driving cars:
(1) The impact of Sharing, Ubiquitous display, and Biometric-based personalization on car styling
(2) Sustainable Development and Energy Issues
(3) Privacy issues of Interconnected systems and Self-driving cars.
Based on these three topics, a series of three design prototypes (narrative items) have been developed, which are the Styling theme, Energy theme, and Surveillance theme. And use the design methods of speculative design in each topic- "story as concept", "fallacy", "anti-common sense method", "hypothesis", "functional fiction" and other methods to design creations that meet the concept of each theme.
Through a micro-carrier such as self-driving cars, it displays, speculates and thinks about the macro thinking of future scientific and technological life.
Design Theme introduction
2.Design result
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Styling theme
The body panel is the display screen. Face recognition can be performed through external cameras to broadcast related instant messages, news, advertisements and even interactions to pedestrians.
The final prototype was presented through a combination of face recognition technology and scrolling text marquee. The prototype uses the face recognition technology to recognize the mood of the visitor's face, and displays the corresponding light colors: happy-yellow, angry-blue. And the color changes its chroma correspondingly to the degree of distortion of its face. At the same time, when the prototype detects a human face, the corresponding text will be displayed through the marquee. The operation mode of this prototype is used to simulate the situation of self-driving cars advertising advertisements to pedestrians through face recognition.
Scenarios
Program architecture
Design Theme introduction
First prototype setting
Final prototype setting
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Energy theme
The self-driving car will balance the drag coefficient with the best wind collision benefit. The front of the car is equipped with a huge turbine. When the vehicle runs into the wind, it will drive the turbine to generate electricity by itself.
Scenarios
Final prototype
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Surveillance theme
AI self-driving cars are equipped with a large number of cameras and sensing technologies, which may damage our privacy. The vehicle will record all behavior data of people inside and outside the car at all times. The data can provide huge commercial benefits, political benefits and even affect national security issues. and many more. In the future, AI self-driving cars are like monitors that are inaccessible to everyone's every move around the world.
Scenarios
Final prototype
