Week 6 - Ghost in the Machine

This week's title is a quote from NPR journalist Shankar Vedantam in reference to a concern about self-driving cars. For the first time in the history of humanity, we will depend on an insentient being to take us where we need to go. The thought of doing this at any speed above 20 miles per hour terrifies me, personally. But why? Why do I trust objective, calculating, rational, crash-tested software less than human beings who I know to be imperfect? Simply because I have a lifetime of experience with other human beings behind the wheel (and on rare occasion, the reigns).

Monty Python parody of the
Spanish Inquisition

This innate affinity for the familiar can make us reluctant to adapt to new technologies and ideas (see left). All jokes aside, it is a legitimate obstacle for engineers to overcome when creating the next generation of technology. When pitching a concept as far-flung as autonomous vehicles, it helps to sugarcoat with acceptable ideas about transportation. Self-driving cars have entered the market with steering wheels and gas pedals despite having no technical need for them. In fact, they might make the cars more dangerous. The majority of accidents involving autonomous vehicles are due to human error. So why bother with obsolete parts?

This is an example of the familiarity bias at work, where we prefer less practical, potentially harmful options if they read as "familiar." This bias can make us blind to alternative forms of thinking and lessen our trust in that which feels unusual. Engineers are tasked with sustaining rapport with consumers as well as constructing products that push legal boundaries that have been in place for decades. It is no small feat to pioneer the future of transportation and try to keep everyone comfortable while doing it.

I want to leave you with one example of this kind of work. Not from a 21st century entrepreneur, but from a 19th century one. Nearing the turn of the century, trendy Americans were abandoning the outmoded horse and carriage in favor of the horse-less carriage, the automobile. This new technology raised concerns similar to ones you hear today about self-driving cars. Automobiles were seen as unpredictable and unsettling, eerily moving around without being pulled by a horse. A man named Uriah Smith created a solution to this problem: the Horsey Horseless. This was a fake horse head you could attach to your car to make it seem more...natural? Regardless of the efficacy of his invention, Smith was trying to ease the transition into a different epoch by appealing to the familiarity bias. Who knows what cultural artifacts will be created in our switch to self-driving cars? Maybe people will be laughing about those a hundred years from now.

Horsey Horseless Prototype