EnLIGHTeNING Lunch with Lauren Withycombe Keeler

Self-driving cars are a near-term technology with potentially disruptive consequences for cities – impacting infrastructure, driving patterns, local economies, and the environment. Currently, the Victoria Transportation Policy Institutes estimates self-driving cars will comprise 30—50% of total vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. by the 2040s. And in January 2016, President Obama promised an additional $4 billion in Federal expenditure to advance research on driverless vehicles. The 20th Century saw automobiles affect the social and material fabric of the city but today self-driving cars are largely absent from city planning. In a recent survey, only 4 out of the 68 largest US cities had explicitly considered self-driving cars in their long-term transportation plans. This suggests that cities lack the capacity to seek and assimilate knowledge about emerging technologies into planning and governance. This talk will discuss the opportunities and challenges posed by anticipatory governance and responsible innovation for helping cities plan for, absorb, and direct disruptive technologies within their jurisdictions by exploring the case of self-driving cars.

RSVP to [email protected] by noon on Tuesday, January 26
Lunch will be served (must RSVP).

Cosponsored by Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes and School for the Future of Innovation in Society

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