The investment and excitement surrounding self-driving vehicles are huge. We know from earlier transport innovations that technological transitions can reshape lives, livelihoods, and places in profound ways. There is therefore a case for wide democratic debate, but how should this take place? In this paper, we explore the tensions between democratic experiments and technological ones with a focus on policy for nascent self-driving/automated vehicles. We describe a dominant model of public engagement that imagines increased public awareness leading to acceptance and then adoption of the technology. We explore the flaws in this model, particularly in how it treats members of the public as users rather than citizens and the presumption that the technology is well-defined. Analysing two large public dialogue exercises in which we were involved, our conclusion is that public dialogue can contribute to shifting established ideas about both technologies and the public, but that this reframing demands openness on the part of policymakers and other stakeholders. Rather than seeing public dialogues as individual exercises, it would be better to evaluate the governance of emerging technologies in terms of whether it takes place ‘in dialogue’.

中文翻译：

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拒绝接受：从无人驾驶汽车的公开对话中学习

围绕自动驾驶汽车的投资和兴奋是巨大的。我们从早期的交通创新中了解到，技术转型可以深刻地重塑生活、生计和地方。因此，有理由进行广泛的民主辩论，但这应该如何进行？在本文中，我们探讨了民主实验和技术实验之间的紧张关系，重点关注新生的自动驾驶/自动驾驶汽车的政策。我们描述了一种公众参与的主导模型，该模型设想公众意识的提高导致接受并采用该技术。我们探讨了这个模型的缺陷，特别是它如何将公众视为用户而不是公民，以及该技术是明确定义的假设。分析我们参与的两次大型公共对话活动，我们的结论是，公共对话有助于转变关于技术和公众的既定观念，但这种重新定义需要政策制定者和其他利益相关者的开放性。与其将公共对话视为个人活动，不如根据新兴技术的治理是否“在对话中”进行评估。