Autonomous vehicles are an emerging type of technology that not only have the potential to impact our daily lives, but they could cause our cities to be significantly reshaped as well. Yet the design and deployment of the technology raises a host of complex ethical, legal, and policy questions. To address some of these questions, IEEE hosted an event titled “Navigating the (Mis)Perceptions of Autonomous Vehicles” on November 14, 2019 at The Cooper Union in New York City. The event is part of IEEE’s TechEthics series and involved four panelists with a moderator. The panel conversation was generated in response to both questions posed by the moderator and audience members.

One of the panelists was Dr. Jason Borenstein from the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy and Office of Graduate Studies. He, along with the other panelists, discussed a range of topics such as what opportunities and risks might emerge from the use of autonomous vehicles. In addition, the panelists described ethical issues related to the technology such as privacy and safety concerns. The panel also weighed in on whether it is realistic to assume that fully autonomous vehicles will be on the roads in the near future.

IEEE is a large, global engineering professional organization; information about its TechEthics series could be found at:https://techethics.ieee.org/.