Here at The Drive, we are determined to compliment our leading coverage of cars and automotive enthusiasm with equally compelling coverage of the mobility technologies that will change how we get around in the future. Cars may not be going away tomorrow, but we are undoubtedly on the cusp of profound long-term changes in the business and technology of transportation and we are determined to help you follow and understand this far-reaching and complex transition.
The next step in our build-out of this coverage is a new podcast called Merge Now, a weekly series of conversations with the people who are helping to shape the mobility technologies of tomorrow. You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Google Play, Spotify and other podcast platforms or you can listen in right here at The Drive’s website. You can check out a brief introduction to the show, what the name means and what it will try to accomplish below.
In the first full episode of Merge Now, I spoke with Sam Anthony and Julian De Freitas of Harvard’s Psychology department about their paper taking on academic research into the “trolley problem” and other so-called ethical dilemmas that dominate discussions of self-driving cars. They explain why these problems seem interesting but actually tell us very little about how autonomous vehicles are actually developed and are largely a distraction.
In the second full episode, which just went live, I spoke with Duke University professor, former combat-qualified fighter pilot, human-automation interaction researcher and all around badass Dr Missy Cummings about the recent MIT Autopilot study led by Lex Fridman. Dr Cummings explains how Fridman’s study bucks the findings of most human-automation interaction research and why she has issues with the methodology of his study, as well as her issues with Autopilot more broadly.
If you have feedback on the show, would like to appear on it or are interested in sponsoring it (which we would deeply appreciate!) you can contact Ed by emailing ed [at] thedrive [dot] com, or by reaching out on Twitter where he can be found @Tweetermeyer. Thanks for tuning in, and we hope you enjoy the show!