IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015 - 68

Figure 1. An "exploded view" of a fragment of a PoSR
network. Each layer represents a different social network of the
same individuals, each based on a communication channel.

to stop along the way that they might want to visit. They
still have the capability to make and answer calls and
instruct an agent how to respond to email, etc., all while in
motion. A driver might also be drinking a coffee, or having
a snack [12]. They may even be wearing a head mounted
display device in addition to what is installed in the vehicle.
In addition to balancing these instruments, tasks,
and activities, there are even more challenges that will
face drivers in the near future.
The battle for the territory of the car and its digital
interior has just begun. In "Connected cAR: Becoming
the Cyborg Chauffeur," Applin [12] suggests that one
way to automate cars might be to use human behavior
to train the Artificial Intelligence (AI) of the car. At present, while a human is still needed for nearly all automobiles, humans may be starting to train automobile
systems as to the parameters of driving behavior.
The car is apparently one of the next battlefields
for ownership of our personal data and privacy. It is
an intimate environment and there will soon be
enough sensors to document every human habit
and behavior within it. While cars will become the
panoptic reporter to our every move, people will
also be burdened with an overwhelming amount of
data ostensibly aimed at "aiding" them in the driving task. There will be touch activated windshields,
Augmented Reality (AR) navigation lines projected
onto the windshield that guide drivers on a track of
navigation, and the blending of both scenarios with
the addition of ads showing up on screen. Audio
feedback based on sensor activity is currently available as a service in certain commercial vehicles.
Installed sensors monitor driver behavior and provide immediate audio feedback if a driver suddenly
changes lanes, is speeding, or engages in other
unsafe behaviors [12].
While an audio warning to remind people that their
cars are weaving is useful, it does not fully address the

issues that are required to keep cars safe with a multiple
menu of digital, technological, and social options soon at
their command. If nothing else, cars will have to provide
tools that simplify the decisions that both people and
their car algorithms need to make to keep the car safe.
Sharing, or making a car more "social" is certainly a
double-edged idea. In one way, it can be similar to what
happened in the later days of the automobile (after the
turf wars for the streets had subsided), where "social"
behaviors (such as sharing) led to cooperation that
helped the driver and, in turn, helped those that became
passengers or were part of the community. In another
sense, too much sharing does not benefit drivers or their
communities, but instead that of advertisers, manufacturers, governments and so on. This is a less egalitarian
view of sharing and sociability. If information is going to
be exchanged between cars - authority, accountability,
and the audit trail for when information is viewed and
who gets to review it, will also need to be considered.
An environment of sharing information and coordinating
vehicles enters people and their cars into a different kind
of social relationship on the road. This environment also
creates new opportunities for criminality, as car hijackers/hackers find ways to control vehicles to overtake,
steal, or utilize to aid them in their various schemes of
either overt theft or overtaking control of information
systems to cause accidents...or worse [13].

Multiplexed Attention, Agency,
and Software Development
At present, humans use mobile devices to extend their
capabilities, often while they do more than one thing
at once. "Divided attention," describes the state when
humans focus their attention on more than one thing
at a time. Research on divided attention suggests that
people using mobile devices, are not generally able to
concentrate on other things in their vicinity when walking or driving whilst having a conversation that requires
them to process information. [14], [15]. Communications
across PoSR networks exacerbate the impact of divided
attention to greater extremes as attention is greatly multiplexed and the complexity of the messaging environment
goes well beyond the capabilities of physiological systems
that enable people to do critical things required for their
safety and the safety of others. This can be controlled if
people are able to make the right choices for their attention, but making the right choices is difficult in a divided
attention context. Safety strategies take time to develop,
and the results of poor decisions can be critical. Thus, the
interaction environment described by PoSR poses great
challenges to using upcoming technologies to improve the
social integration of people and their vehicles. The high
entropy of driving conditions in conjunction with the PoSR
environment poses a complexity problem that requires a

IEEE TEchnology and SocIETy MagazInE

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MARCH 2015

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