Meet the Academics Trying to Stop You From Having Sex in Robotaxis

Robotaxi technology is being tested in some countries, with no human drivers behind the wheel. However, this raises concerns about potential antisocial behavior inside these vehicles. Researchers, including Bazilinskyy, a systems engineer, and Alexandros Rouchitsas, an engineering psychologist, are exploring ways to prevent people from engaging in intimate activities in self-driving cars at an industry workshop in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The workshop, part of a larger conference on human interaction with vehicles, aims to address the issue both to preserve the positive reputation of autonomous mobility and to ensure that self-driving technology is seen as equitable and societally minded. The workshop will focus on developing physical and design interventions to discourage consensual interactions, with a specific emphasis on preventing sex.

Rouchitsas hopes the brainstorming sessions will yield creative solutions, such as making vehicles transparent or incorporating blinking lights as disapproval signals. The researchers believe that studying and preventing such behavior could help designers, companies, and lawmakers create safer and more inclusive communal spaces for future self-driving vehicles.