How Mobility Technologies Change Our Lived Experiences: A Phenomenological Approach to the Sense of Agency in the Autonomous Vehicle

Abstract

: In mobility studies, it is commonly recognized that the development of mobility technologies brings about a vast range of changes in human lived experiences. Taking the autonomous vehicle as an example, this paper investigates the possible changes in human lived experiences resulting from said development. Based on phenomenological and cognitive scientific studies, this paper gives a detailed analysis of how the kinesthesis and sense of agency vary from everyday bodily movement to manual driving to autonomous driving following six levels of driving automation. This paper identifies, through philosophical analyses and interpretation, the problem of how the human driver can attend to driving without being fully engaged in it and suggests the possibility of considering the “driver - car” assemblage, a unified agent that gives relevant secondary attention to and is responsible for the driving situation. In doing so, this paper contributes to the discussions not only on the descriptive features of human lived experience but also on the normative issues around human drivers’ responsibility in an autonomous vehicle.