Intervals of Intervention : Micro-Decisions and the Temporal Autonomy of Self-Driving Cars

Abstract

Self-driving vehicles do not simply translate algorithmic definitions of their interaction with the environment into material actions. In the implementation of microdecisions, temporality itself becomes an element of the success of operations. Taking the fascination for a non-human and distributed capability of decision-making as a starting point, the paper explores how the temporality of microdecisions is integrated into technical systems that interact with their surroundings. On the basis of a media archaeology of these temporalities, it develops a heuristic of autonomous technologies that explores the role of micro-decisions. With self-driving cars, terms such as agency (based on algorithms), temporality (in different intervals of intervention), decision (in reference to alternative scenarios), and autonomy achieve new meanings worthy of a re-interpretation.