Robot First Aid: Autonomous Vehicles Could Help in Emergencies

Safety is of critical importance in designing autonomous vehicles (AVs) that will be able to perform effectively in complex, mixed-traffic, real-world urban environments. Some prior research has looked at how to proactively avoid accidents with safe distancing and driver monitoring, but currently little research has explored strategies to recover afterwards from emergencies, from crime to natural disasters. The current short paper reports on our ongoing work using a speculative prototyping approach to explore this expansive design space, in the context of how a robot inside an AV could be deployed to support first aid. As a result, we present some proposals for how to detect emergencies, and examine and help victims, as well as lessons learned in prototyping. Thereby, our aim is to stimulate discussion and ideation that–by considering the prevalence of Murphy’s law in our complex world, and the various technical, ethical, and practical concerns raised–could potentially lead to useful safety innovations.