Talk details
Designing the Future of Accessible Autonomous Air Taxis with People with Disabilities
About this talk
This project explores AI and automation in transportation and mobility futures. It examines the tension between everyday walking, which is embodied, social, and unpredictable, and automated mobility systems, which often prioritize prediction, efficiency, classification, and control. The project leveraged speculative and participatory design methods by asking participants to become future speculators. Through sandbox worldbuilding and roleplay, they activated possible futures rather than simply responding to them. This helped surface bad outcomes, including how oppression, exclusion, and normalization could be exercised through data driven mobility systems. A key outcome was the Context Futures Framework, which helps teams move between real world research, plausible worldbuilding, critique, and artifact development. The main learning is that design can surface social consequences before systems are fully built, helping teams imagine more humane and equitable mobility futures.
Key takeaway
- Use speculative design to surface hidden impacts of AI and automation, especially bias, normalization, and behavioral sorting before systems are deployed.
- Apply participatory design to shift people from users to speculators, enabling them to imagine, experience, and critique future scenarios, while designers act as translators of these insights.
- Use the Context Futures Framework to move between real world research, plausible worldbuilding, critique, and artifact development in a structured way.
- Reframe mobility design decisions by asking who is being predicted, normalized, or excluded, and how context is being shaped through AI systems.