Literature review

Synthetic chatter or lifesaving semiotics – symposium 3

Keywords

Connected autonomous vehicles, semiotic technoecology, systemic autonomy.

A partial social and cultural history of autonomous vehicles

The social and cultural history of AVs has informed the larger body of my research. Looking at the literature that has for centuries provided an aspirational quality, arguably inspired the development of AVs. From this research, of which only a summary of the social and cultural history is presented here, an understanding emerged of the differences between society’s expectations of AVs and the industry’s accepted Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) levels[1] of vehicle automation. This raised a central research question regarding the social and cultural expectations of AVs, revealed in reviews of film and literature, how did these films and documentaries shape the discourse on AV? Research into the social and cultural history of AVs in literature and films utilised library search engines, online research and published documents, yielded approximately twelve films with direct relevance to specific aspects of technology, environment, the city and semiotics. While more than 40 major films contain AV, the films that could be regarded as sites for a rehearsal for the technology development, and that could be regarded as socially influential in this research include, The Love Bug 1968[2], Minority Report 2002[3], I-Robot 2004[4], Ender’s Game 2013[5] and documentaries of the semi-autonomous drones used in the Afghanistan War seen in Warizstan: the Drone Strike Capital 2013[6]. I argue that the history of the development of AV technology has influenced social expectations for the future development of the technology, a subject sketched in Living with autonomous vehicles in the city.[7]

Susan Schneider, as editor of Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence, provides insights from a number of renowned thinkers linking imagination, science fiction, transhumanism and philosophy, which informed the progression of cultural research; that is film and fiction are sites for rehearsal in philosophical and innovative discoveries. The historical narratives in this history are arranged around three themes, which inform the research questions and the hypothesis:

1.      Myth, magic, science fiction and philosophy in autonomous transport

2.      Synthetically intelligent city, semiotics, civilian and military AV as a ‘technoecology’

3.      Unionism, labour disputes, disruptions, corruption and environmentalism in the vehicle industry

The history of military machines and semi-autonomous vehicles reveals a discordant note of unethical use of technology in both military and civilian settings. Benjamin Bratton’s The Stack[8] discusses the geopolitical injustices (and surveillance capitalism) from technological advancement, which are difficult to appreciate due to the global scale computations and networks. Humanity’s relationship with machinery is a tangled philosophical issue. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published the Italian Manifesto in 1909[9], which provides a philosophy for ‘futurism’ that includes a revelation of speed, machinery, youthfulness and industry. Marinetti said that humans will use speed, machinery and industry, not the opposite. This futurist approach is explored in films such as Minority Report 2013, and explored with deathly results as seen in the Warizstan 2013 documentary. Injustice in transportation, the unethical use of AV in both military and civilian settings (which also refers to the film Ender’s Game, 2013) are subjects that form part of the discussion about the development of the technology and its deployment. This has direct relevance to the PhD research into understanding how society anticipates living with AV in the public realm.

Another discordant theme in a selective history of AVs is the field of trauma and accidents. Death by motor vehicle accident is a major sociological phenomenon, as is evidenced in the World Health Organisation’s (2013) Global Status Report on Road Safety: Supporting a Decade of Action 2013[10]. Annual statistics confirm that approximately 1.2 to 1.3 million people die each year on roads throughout the world[11]. Safety improvements through AVs are cited in the industry as a compelling argument for the implementation of AV technology to replace human-driven vehicles, as most accidents are caused by human error. Associated with the social history is the invention and patent of vehicle indicator and brake lights. This is part of the intricate Convention of Road Signs and Signals[12], which is in turn part of the semiotics and communications associated with future CAREV technology.

Technology: Autonomous Vehicles and Connected Autonomous Vehicles and systems literature

Recent typical and authoritative publications carrying current overviews of AV technology that are relevant to my research include Chakraborty’s ‘Top 5 Self Driving Car Companies to Watch Out in 2021’,[13] which notes that the current state of technology and technological development falls short of Level 5 automation. This has relevance to the subject field, in that full AV and connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) environments are still under research development through global trials[14] and there are currently no fully operational CAV environments in the public realm.[15] There is substantial financial global investment from private, government and academic research[16] into AV/CAV technology. To arrive at a selection of relevant literatures, a selection process was necessary as AVs[17] are a subject of intense academic and technical inquiry in a substantial number of articles. Based on word searches through Google Scholar on 30 October 2020, there were 4,285,000 sources on the subject, of which 2,122,000 sources refer to autonomous vehicles, 35000 refer to driverless vehicles, and 2,130,000 refer to self-driving vehicles. In narrowing the field through subject relevance through advanced searches, by including words such as ‘connected’, ‘renewable energy’, and so on, the subject field narrows and relevance increases, noting that a majority of the articles on AV deal with specific technological developments (lidar, algorithms etc), and have little relevance to my research subject area. To ensure that the subject field is nuanced for applicability, it is important to clarify an appropriate scholarly definition of CAREV.  ‘Driverless’ and ‘autonomous’ are frequently interchanged by authors as the definitions and distinctions are not universally accepted. This is a subject of a previous literature review and recommendations that emerged from Symposium 2. For the purposes of this research, a CAREVs definition is ‘a systemic interconnectedness, the high-speed sharing and assimilation of data by machine intelligence that offers possibilities of a systemic approach to vehicle transport utilising CAREV to benefit the city and its inhabitants’. CAREV provide redundancy safety advances, and networked systems that AVs may not achieve; this is a highly technical debate in the industry. CAREV is an important environmental distinction from CAV in this discussion as CAREV includes the concept of reduced extraction through circular economies, manufacturing and operations through renewable energy. The following diagrams clarify the connected and autonomous features of CAREV, in depth reviews of research-relevant literatures are provided below.

Before turning to specialised technical reviews of literatures, my reading of recent major books on AVs contain limited or no information about the definition of CAREVs; this is important to my research as it indicates deficiencies in descriptions, relevance and the use of correct terminology. The correct use of terminology is part of the PhD and will be discussed briefly below. The publications include Schwartz’s (2018) No One at the Wheel: Driverless Cars and the Road of the Future and Wolmer’s (2018) Driverless Cars: On a Road to Nowhere. The books provide broad background speculative information on AVs and are not specific to CAREV. Mitchell et al’s (2010) Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century includes design-based research into smaller vehicle typologies, which is discussed in the environmental framework for the project as smaller vehicles have spatial and environmental benefits, the subject of ongoing research that will be discussed at Symposium 4, I return to Mitchell later in this review.

A typical and often referred publication by Nicole Kareta,[18] in Cooperation to increase the use of vehicle data, in Intelligent Mobility Experience (an industry focussed publication), notes: ‘The aim of the cooperation between Otonomo[19] and FCA[20] [Group] to [sic] deliver new use cases such as advanced mapping, advanced traffic management and planning, and smart city applications to support the decrease of congestion and pollution in urban environments driven by Otonomo’s de-identified data.’ This is an example of the ‘technoecology’ concept, where technology is levered to assist with beneficial environmental and communication outcomes. This example of technical description by industry of CAV technologies, where the city and the AVs are sharing and responding to synthetic intelligences. The systemic qualities hold the possibility of achieving advanced levels of safety. A detailed review of CAV technology is available in the article by Alireza Talebpoura, Hani S. Mahmassanib, ‘Influence of connected and autonomous vehicles on traffic flow stability and throughput’.[21] This article has informed the technical aspects of the research.

A systemic integration of CAREV technology with traffic management on city-wide (or regional) networks could arguably require supercomputing or quantum computing, as summarised by Ondrej Burkacky, Niko Mohr, and Lorenzo Pautasso, in ‘Will Quantum Computing Applications Drive the Automotive Future?’[22] discuss simulations and modelling to test the systems and to establish redundancies. Associated with quantum computing are mass data systems such as environmental management systems, air quality modelling, hydrology modelling, traffic, transport and heat island modelling. These integrated systems could result in cites as high sensory and synthetically intelligent platforms with a ‘semiotic technoecology’[23], a keyword for the research. ‘Technoecology’ is defined as transformative technological advances for studying species and environments’, it is a systemic approach, one that relates to Marinetti’s Italian Manifesto, 1909. Semiotics, technology and environmental systemic approaches are also described in detail in this review. Possibly due to the relative novelty of this field, commentary between authors on each other’s publications is limited or related to highly technical differences, one of these is to do with systemic approaches, such as that seen in CAREV.

Literature on systems

General system theory[24] positions itself as transdisciplinary[25] rather than interdisciplinary. Semiotics are inherently part of a system thinking approach. This research employs a systemic approach and is focused on answering research questions related to the technological, environmental and semiotic systems employing principles described by Donella H. Meadows[26]. Meadows defines thinking in linear and non-linear, dynamic, balancing and augmented systems with various forms of feedback loop processes. Systems principles assist in understanding the dynamic, multidimensional and spatial qualities of systems, including systems within systems and how these could be conceptualised as part of CAREVs in the public realm within an environmental framework.

Capra and Luisi[27] recommend a holistic and environmental approach that asks questions through understanding networks such as communications and semiotics (cybernetics) as foundational systemic thinking, including cognition and design.

Semiotics literature

According to Fernando Andacht Peirce’s Semiotic Theory describes signification, representation, reference and meaning and more broadly the classification of semiotics as part of cognition as a general theory of signs. The main research source relating to semiotics is Torkild Thellefsen and Bent Sorensen eds.[28] Charles Sanders Peirce in his own words: 100 years of semiotics communications and cognition. Andacht suggests that Peirce’s arguments are distinctive and innovative for their breadth and complexity and for their logical, mathematical approach, which has been developed by later thinkers into computational approaches such as Schneider in her writings on Language of Thought[29] (LoT). Schneider (2011: 229) hypothesises that LoT is a computational cognitive process utilising symbols. The concept of LoT demonstrates similarities to computational recognition used in CAREVs as a semiotic ecology, as discussed by Patrice Seuwou et al.[30] as they frame their semiotic argument through Latour’s Actor Network Theory.

In the field of communications and semiotics, modifications to the public realm as a result of CAREV technology are likely to occur. While Peirce’s century-old theory[31] presents limitations associated with technological advances, Schneider’s (2011) more recent research in semiotics and LoT is a contemporary view on the subject.

Eduardo Kohn provides key anthropological insights into communication systems and semiotics between humans and the environment in his landmark research How Forests Think.[32] An abstraction of this research provides links between the city and CAREVs through semiotics (signs and signals) and communications (cybernetics) and is related to the research question regarding the semiotics and communications of a future CAREV environment. Kohn (2013: 9) links language and symbol as a cognitive process through observations of cultural practices. On a concrete note, the social and cultural history of AV details the invention and patent of vehicle indicators and brake lights as part of the intricate Convention of Road Signs and Signals[33] and the United Nations Agreement Concerning the Adoption of Uniform Technical Prescriptions for Wheeled Vehicles, Equipment and Parts.[34] This is relevant to the future project research as it is part of the semiotic and communications aspect of the project. The paradox of standardisation for safety and the inherent restrictions on innovation will be discussed in this thesis.

Policy-oriented visioning for autonomous cities includes various reports by the Victorian Government[35] and British Government.[36] Academic publications that include city and vehicle design include Harrow et al.’s Gateway Driverless Futures: Design for Acceptance and Adopting in Urban Environments,[37] a rich literary source for understanding typologies and vehicle-to-human interfaces. Publications that recommend a fleet of smaller vehicles include Mitchell[38] and Burns,[39] the benefits of which include lower energy use, less embodied energy and improved spatial, environmental and safety outcomes. These combined issues form part of a discussion about the mobility options and spatial justice that has transformative potential.

Environmental literature

Fossil fuelled vehicles are one of the world’s largest single sprawling industries, contributing to globalisation, international labour injustices and environmental pollution leading to climate change. It represents an almost ubiquitous transport system, with only 2.3% of motor vehicles driven by non-fossil fuelled vehicles in Europe in 2018.[40] The social licence to operate is impacting the industry, and many governments are banning or phasing out fossil fuelled vehicles and systems, this is discussed in the social and cultural history of AVs and is associated with climate justice, a subject that will be discussed in detail in Symposium 4. Many countries are banning the sale of fossil fuelled vehicles between 2030 and 2040[41]. Norway is leading the approach by offering tax incentives and policies to move to zero fossil fuel emissions by 2025.[42] Since the entire transport sector accounts for 21% of total carbon emissions, and road transport accounts for three quarters of transport emissions, road transport according to Casson56 (2018) accounts for 15% of total CO2 emissions.[43] Communities around the world expect clean air: it is a human right[44] and it is a climate justice issue.

The pollution of air with noxious oxides that are regarded as carcinogenic and greenhouse gases associated with climate change continues to impact on future generations. Fossil fuels also enter the waterway systems through roads’ stormwater systems, polluting the rivers and seas and consequently entering into the food chain. Governments who continue to support or develop fossil fuelled economies should be held accountable by future generations. As an issue of intergenerational environmental justice, this will be the subject of Symposium 4.

Transitional technologies such as lithium, which is not a renewable resource, for the use in electric vehicles and other battery systems, and the poor extraction and environmental consequences, especially those in South America, are issues in which researchers at the RCA are involved. CAREV technology could potentially exacerbate these conditions, but there is extensive industry and academic research into alternatives to lithium battery systems that could be assessed as renewable and have commercial potential.

The philosophical framework for a suitable environmental response for the research is to develop at least a sustainable approach to road-based transport, for CAREVs specifically and for AVs generally. The environmental framework necessarily responds to operational and embodied (extraction and manufacturing) renewable energy requirements. The overarching approach is a development of the research on systemic environmental frameworks by Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi[45] in their The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision. In general terms, Capra lays out the requirements for natural and man-made environmental impacts to be conceptualised as one systemic interrelated system. An evaluation of an appropriate environmental response formed research previously undertaken, Capra’s holistic, GAIA based principles have been previously assessed as an appropriate approach for the environmental framework for this project.

Capra and Luisi’s approach is supported by other researchers such as Peter Newman and Isabella Jennings[46] in Cities As Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices, although focussed on city ecosystems, and Jean-Paul Rodrigue[47] writes in The Geography of Transport Systems in relation to transport and specifically vehicle (road-based) transport that environmental, social and economic relationships can be measured, targets set and assessed quantitatively to ensure improvements are continuously made. The future synthetically intelligent city could be seen effectively as an energy generator, storage system and demand cycle moderator. This idea was presented as an Australian energy revolution in ‘The Great Acceleration’.[48] Major research indicates that heat island cities suffer poorer water quality and air quality than cities less impacted by the effects of the heat island.[49] The University of Michigan’s[50] ‘Maximizing the Environmental Benefits of Autonomous Vehicles’ is a journal publication to which this research notes specific CAREV responses. In structuring this research, I have also reviewed the Green New Deal[51] strategies to avoid planetary destruction.

William Mitchell in ‘Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century ‘[52] provides relevant insights into future mobility alternatives, specifically for a reinvention of a compact personal vehicle that focuses on efficiency, design improvements for vehicles, and the use of materials. His book also provides insights into the manufacturing and operational environmental costs of the current motor-vehicle industry; this is relevant to the environmental framework, novel approaches to mobility and environmental positivity is a focus for this field. Mitchell’s one of MIT’s luminaries is significant to my research in that it covers personal mobility issues, and smaller vehicle design, issues which introduce and link themes to Symposium 4, In that future symposium spatial justice and therefore environmental justice issues associated with smaller CAREV are a major theme. While symposium 3 is focussed on communications between humans, vehicles and the city, these issues are interrelated with comprehending how this transport modality has systemic environmental, social and economic impacts; and will help answer part of the ‘semiotic technoecology’ research question. In contrast, Anthony Townsend, one of America’s leading contemporary AV and urban authors, ‘Ghost Road’[53] provides a sound and wide contribution to the AV field’s interdisciplinary research, however his approach into the environmental consequences of the technology are not developed in relation to an environmental framework, a missed opportunity and one which my research aims to address. Townsend presents AV technology from the unique perspective of an American scholar and employs a significantly consumerist, capitalist perspective. Townsend’s research is broad and discusses generic AVs and their relationship to the ‘smart city’ from the perspective of an urbanist, he does not address issues associated with social, spatial or environmental justices, a focus subject of my research.

Townsend’s earlier Smart Cities: big data, civic hackers and the quest for a new utopia’ a 2013[54]  publication, is overly detailed and strongly consumerist, albeit academic perspective, on Smart Cities and its planning evolution. The writings again lack a strong environmental or systemic approach. As a combined reading with Bratton’s (2017) The Stack, the implications of information management at private and public levels underpin the massive investment that CAREV technology will require a matter that could be of interest to policy makers and environmentalists. Further research is required to appreciate technological and social injustices that are likely to occur as a result of a CAREV environment. Advanced technologies benefit those who have and are able to leverage them, a subject of the environmental framework and the future symposia on technology and social injustices, Symposium 4.

The guiding principle of sustainable[55] development according to a leading authority on the subject, is a sustainable environment is ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development recognises the interdependence of environmental, social and economic systems and promotes equality and justice through people empowerment and a sense of global citizenship. Whilst we cannot be sure what the future may bring, a preferable future is a more sustainable one’. This is an intergenerational equity and justice issue, a subject of the environmental framework and future symposia on technology and social injustices[56]. Returning to Andre Gorz,[57] in ‘Capitalism, Socialism, Ecology’, changing cultural attitudes to work and economic rationality in the field of autonomous human activity are questioned. This book clarifies the accelerationist principles that arguably underpin the AV industry and the scale of the industry. Gorz provides a foundational base on which to assess social justice issues as a part of future research that is inextricably linked to economics and consumerism a complex subject for discussion in Symposium 3 and 4. The paradoxical position of humans needing to move around, to work, as part of the production of space, the need for safe, reliable, efficient, resilient, culturally aware and environmentally positive systems is a focus of this literature review and research.

[1]             SAE industry accepted definitions of levels of automation are included in Appendix D.

[2]              Robert Stevenson, The Love Bug (Buena Vista, 1968).

[3]              Steven Spielberg, Minority Report (20th Century Fox, 2002).

[4]              Alex Proyas and others, I, robot (20th Century Fox, 2004).

[5]              Gavin Hood, Ender’s Game (Summit Entertainment, 2013) <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ender%27s_Game_(film)&oldid=1037110433> [accessed 9 August 2021].

[6]              Journeyman Pictures, Waziristan: The World’s Drone Strike Capital, 2013 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk7fD5umakg&t=270s> [accessed 4 August 2021].

[7]              Colin Polwarth, October 2021. Living with autonomous vehicles in the city. Urban Design Review. https://urbandesignreview.com/living-with-autonomous-vehicles-in-the-city/ Accessed 31 October 2021.

[8]             Benjamin H. Bratton, The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty, Software Studies (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2015).p. 39.

[9]             Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian Manifesto [Italian: Manifesto del Futurismo] (France: Le Figaro, 1909), articles 5 and 6.

[10]           World Health Organisation, Global Status Report on Road Safety: Supporting a decade of Action 2013 (2013) <http://www.who.int/about/licensing/copyright_form/en/index.html > [Accessed 9 February 2019. p. v.] Later versions such as The Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018 highlight that the number of annual road traffic deaths has reached 1.35 million.

[11]           This statistic does not include major injury, which is known to be a higher statistic with greater long-term impacts on human health.

[12]           United Nations, Convention on Road Signs and Signals (New York: United Nations, 2007) <http://www.unece.org/transport/international-agreements/transconventnlegalinst/list-of-agreements-for-tabs/road-traffic-and-road-signs-and-signals-agreements-and-conventions.html> [Accessed 9 March 2019.]

[13]           Monomita Chakraborty, ‘Top 5 Self Driving Car Companies to Watch Out in 2021’, Analytics Insight (2021) <https://www.analyticsinsight.net/top-5-self-driving-car-companies-to-watch-out-in-2021/> [accessed 8 April 2021].

[14]           AV and CAV trial sites include those in Sydney, Olympic Park (https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/data-and-research/research-hub/research-hub/research-projects/driverless-shuttle-bus-trial) and in London (https://smartmobility.london/).

[15]           There are fully operational AVs in agricultural, mining, port and military sites globally, but these are highly controlled environments on private property. Examples are Port Botany Sydney and Port of London. There are a number of fully autonomous trial sites globally, including in London and Sydney. In Sydney I have through the Australian Driverless Summit (ADVI 2017, 2018 and 2019) attended and driven in both AV and CAV test vehicle sites.

[16]           Intrado, ‘Global Autonomous Cars Market (2020 to 2030) – Opportunities and Strategies with COVID-19 Growth and Change, Research and Markets Global News Wire https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/12/28/2150806/0/en/Global-Autonomous-Cars-Market-2020-to-2030-Opportunities-and-Strategies-with-COVID-19-Growth-and-Change.html. [accessed 12 January 2021].

[17]           For example, Shladover (2018) writes, ‘The basic concept of road vehicle automation refers to the replacement of some or all of the human labor of driving by electronic and/or mechanical device’ in Patrice Seuwou and others, ‘Actor-Network Theory as a Framework to Analyse Technology Acceptance Model’s External Variables: The Case of Autonomous Vehicles’, in Global Security, Safety and Sustainability - The Security Challenges of the Connected World, ed. by Hamid Jahankhani and others, Communications in Computer and Information Science (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2016), pp. 305–20 <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51064-4_24>.

[18]           Nicole Kareta, ‘Cooperation to increase the use of vehicle data’, Intelligent Mobility Experience (2020) <https://www.intelligent-mobility-xperience.com/cooperation-to-increase-the-use-of-vehicle-data-a-941342/>.

[19]           Wejo being the manager of Ortonomo are arguably global leaders in CAV data. Wejo, ‘Make Better Decisions with Connected Car Data’, Wejo, 2021 <https://www.wejo.com/we-are-wejo?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=competitor-otglobal&utm_term=otonomo&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs6S8-vbt7wIVwrWWCh3XiADUEAAYASAAEgIqTPD_BwE> [accessed 5 August 2021].

[20]           FCA Group is the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Group collaborating with Waymo (https://www.fcagroup.com/en-US/innovation/Pages/future_mobility.aspx#). Stellantis, ‘About Us Stellantis’, 2021 <https://www.stellantis.com/en/group/about-us?adobe_mc_ref=> [accessed 8 October 2021].

[21]           Alireza Talebpour and Hani S. Mahmassani, ‘Influence of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles on Traffic Flow Stability and Throughput’, Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 71 (2016), 143–63 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2016.07.007>.

[22]           Ondrej Burkacky, Niko Mohr, and Lorenzo Pautasso, ‘Will Quantum Computing Applications Drive the Automotive Future?’, McKinsey & Company, 2020 <https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/will-quantum-computing-drive-the-automotive-future#> [accessed 4 August 2021].

[23]           Blake M. Allan and others, ‘Futurecasting Ecological Research: The Rise of Technoecology’, ed. by José Lahoz-Monfort., Ecosphere, 9.5 (2018), e02163 <https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2163>. ‘Technoecology’ is defined as transformative technological advances for studying species and environments. This includes bio-batteries, low-power and long-range telemetry, the internet of things, swarm theory, 3D printing, mapping molecular movement, and low-power computers to name a few. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize ecology by providing ‘next-generation’ ecological data, particularly when integrated with each other, and in doing so could be applied to address a diverse range of requirements. Critical to technoecology’s rate of advancement will be fostering increased interdisciplinary collaboration.

[24]           Interdisciplinary refers to the interaction between disciplines, that is integrating knowledge and methods from different disciplines, using a real synthesis of approaches, whereas transdisciplinarity refers to going beyond or across disciplines. General system theory was generally interpreted to be equilibrium-oriented, and fundamentally static, particularly as interpreted in mid-twentieth century functionalist sociology. This focus on order and equilibrium was also one of the main sources for the initial critiques of general system theory’s application in the social sciences.

[25]           Jensnius, Alexander Refsum, ‘Disciplinarities: Intra, Cross, Multi, Inter, Trans’, 2012 <https://www.arj.no/2012/03/12/disciplinarities-2/> [accessed 6 August 2021]Jensnius.

[26]           Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (USA: New York: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008).

[27]           Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi, The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision, 1st edition (UK: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)., p. 452.

[28]           Charles Sanders Peirce in His Own Words: 100 Years of Semiotics, Communication and Cognition, ed. by Torkild Thellefsen and Bent Sorensen, 1st edition (USA: Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2014)., p. 13.

[29]           Susan Schneider, The Language of Thought: A New Philosophical Direction by Susan Schneider (USA: Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2011).

[30]           Seuwou and others.

[31]           Ibid, Thellefsen. 2014.

[32]           Eduardo Kohn, How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human (USA: California: University of California Press Berkley, 2016).

[33]           Transport and Communications United Nations, ‘United Nations Treaty Collection: 20. Convention on Road Signs and Signals’, 2014 <https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetailsIII.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XI-B-20&chapter=11&Temp=mtdsg3&clang=_en> [accessed 4 August 2021].

[34]           Transport and Communications United Nations, ‘United Nations Treaty Collection: Agreement  Concerning the Adoption of Uniform Technical Prescriptions for Wheeled Vehicles, Equipment and Parts Which Can Be Fitted and/or Be Used on Wheeled Vehicles and the Conditions for Reciprocal Recognition of Approvals Granted on the Basis of These Prescriptions’, 2014 <https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=XI-B-16&chapter=11&clang=_en> [accessed 4 August 2021].

[35]           Infrastructure Australia, ‘Future Cities: Planning for Our Growing Population’, 2018 <https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/publications/future-cities-planning-our-growing-population> [accessed 3 August 2021].

[36]           GOV.UK, Sir Alan Wilson, and et al, ‘Future of Cities’, GOV.UK, 2013 <https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/future-of-cities> [accessed 8 October 2021].

[37]           Dale Harrow and et al., ‘Driverless Futures: Design for Acceptance and Adoption in Urban Environments’ (Royal College of Art, London., 2020), 978-1-910642-32-0 <https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/4627/> [accessed 21 January 2021].

[38]           William J. Mitchell, Chris E. Borroni-Bird, and Lawrence D. Burns, Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century (Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2010). and Anthony Townsend, Ghost Road Beyond the Driverless Car (USA: New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2020).

[39]           Lawrence D. Burns, Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car – and How It Will Reshape Our World (UK: Williams and Collins, 2018).

[40]           Richard Casson, ‘We’ve Got 10 Years to Ditch Fossil Fuel Cars - or It’s Game over for the Climate’, Greenpeace International, 2018 <https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/18562/weve-got-10-years-to-ditch-fossil-fuel-cars-or-its-game-over-for-the-climate> [accessed 5 August 2021].

[41]           Aakash Jagadeesh Babu and Samantha Machado, review of Fossil fuel-based vehicle bans across the world, by Gareth Jones, Reuters, 18 November 2020, section Money News <https://www.reuters.com/article/climate-change-britain-factbox-idINKBN27Y19F> [accessed 5 August 2021].

[42]           Casson. Ibid.

[43]           International Energy Agency and Thibaut Abergel, Brian Dean and John Dulac, ‘Global Status Report 2017’, United Nations Environment Programme; France and Germany as Well as the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME)., 2017, 48 <https://www.worldgbc.org/sites/default/files/UNEP%20188_GABC_en%20%28web%29.pdf>.

[44]           United Nations Environment and David R. Boyd, ‘Clean Air as a Human Right’, UNEP, 2019 <http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/clean-air-human-right> [accessed 5 August 2021].

[45]           Capra, Fritjof, and Pier Luigi Luisi, The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).

[46]           Peter Newman and Isabella Jennings, Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices (USA: Island Press, 2008).

[47]           Jean-Paul Rodrigue, The Geography of Transport Systems (USA: Routledge, 2016) <https://www.routledge.com/The-Geography-of-Transport-Systems/Rodrigue/p/book/9781138669574> [accessed 5 August 2021].

[48]           Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ‘The Great Acceleration’, ABC Iview (Australia, 2020) <https://iview.abc.net.au/show/great-acceleration> [accessed 5 August 2021].

[49]           Matthaios Santamouris, Minimizing Energy Consumption, Energy Poverty and Global and Local Climate Change in the Built Environment: Innovating to Zero: Causalities and Impacts in a Zero Concept World (Netherlands: Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2019).

[50]           Ann Arbor, ‘Maximizing the Environmental Benefits of Autonomous Vehicles’, University of Michigan News, 2018 <https://news.umich.edu/maximizing-the-environmental-benefits-of-autonomous-vehicles/> [accessed 5 August 2021].

[51]           Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, USA: Recognizing the Duty of the Federal Government to Create a Green New Deal., H. RES. 109, 2019 <https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/text> [accessed 5 August 2021].

[52]           Mitchell, William J., Chris E. Borroni-Bird, and Lawrence D. Burns, Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010)

[53]           Townsend, Anthony, Ghost Road Beyond the Driverless Car (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2020)

[54]           Anthony Townsend. 2013.

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[57]           Andre Gorz, Capitalism, Socialism, Ecology (UK: London: Verso, 2014) <https://www.bklynlibrary.org/item?b=11827319> [accessed 6 August 2021].