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Article Excerpt
Abstract. Recent advances in wireless technologies have led to the development of intelligent, in-vehicle safety applications designed to share information about the actions of nearby vehicles, potential road hazards, and ultimately predict dangerous scenarios or imminent collisions. These vehicle safety communication (VSC) technologies rely on the creation of autonomous, self-organizing, wireless communication networks connecting vehicles with roadside infrastructure and with each other. As the technical standards and communication protocols for VSC technologies are still being developed, certain ethical implications of these new information technologies emerge: Coupled with the predicted safety benefits of VSC applications is a potential rise in the ability to surveil a driver engaging in her everyday activities on the public roads. This paper will explore how the introduction of VSC technologies might disrupt the "contextual integrity" of personal information flows in the context of highway travel and threaten one's "privacy in public." Since VSC technologies and their related protocols and standards are still in the developmental stage, the paper will conclude by revealing how close attention to the ethical implications of the remaining design decisions can inform and guide designers of VSC technologies to create innovate safety applications that increase public safety, but without compromising the value of one's privacy in public.
Key words: contextual integrity, privacy, surveillance, value sensitive design, vehicle safety communication technology
Introduction
Imagine approaching a curve and having a roadside sign tell your car the optimal speed for safe navigation, and your car informing you if you are going too fast. Imagine your car warning you to begin braking because the traffic light you are approaching will be red by the time you reach the intersection. Imagine that same traffic light receiving messages from other nearby cars so it can warn you if another vehicle is likely to run a red light. Imagine a car in front of you, but out of your view, communicating with your car so if it suddenly stops, you will be warned before you can see what has happened. These are some the potential safety benefits of new vehicle safety communication (VSC) technologies.
Now, imagine your car as a node in a wireless network, constantly connecting and communicating with other nearby cars and roadside infrastructure. Imagine your car openly transmitting its location, speed, and identity 10 times per second, every second your car is on, receivable by anyone within 1000 meters. And instead of your car needing to be--by chance--in clear view of traffic cameras or law enforcement to be surveilled, imagine the ability to set up a wide-range data receiver to electronically surveil and record the message activity of every single car that passes within a half-mile radius. These are some of the potential surveillance threats of new VSC technologies.
Recent advances in wireless data communications technologies have led to the development of VSC applications. This new breed of automotive technologies combines intelligent on-board processing systems with wireless communications for real-time transmission and processing of relevant safety data to provide warnings of hazards, predict dangerous scenarios, and help avoid collisions. While the technical standards and communication protocols for VSC technologies are still being developed, it becomes vital to consider potential value and ethical implications of the design of these new information technologies. Coupled with the predicted safety benefits of VSC applications is a potential rise in the ability to surveil a driver engaging in her everyday activities on the public roads, a unique privacy concern known as the problem of "privacy in public".
Given the ubiquity of information technology in our lives, it is vital to consider what our commitment to such systems means for moral, social and political values, including the value of privacy. (1) By approaching the problem of privacy in public through the theory of "contextual integrity," this paper will discuss how the design of VSC technologies might alter personal data flows in political ways, contributing to the growing ubiquity of public surveillance and threatening the value of privacy in public. The ultimate goal of the research is to raise awareness within the VSC design community of the critical value and ethical implications of their technical decisions, and to influence the design of VSC technologies so that the value of privacy becomes a constitutive part of the technological design process, not just something retrofitted after completion and deployment.
VSC technology
Traffic accidents are often a result of the driver's inability to assess quickly and correctly the current and impending driving situations. Too often, a driver has incomplete information about the status of traffic signals, road conditions, or the speed and location of nearby vehicles, and is forced to make operating decisions, such as when to brake or change lanes, without the benefit of all available data. In an attempt to alleviate the problem of incomplete information, the U.S. Department of Transportation launched the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) initiative, with the goal of achieving a "nationwide deployment of a communications infrastructure on the roadways and in all production vehicles and to enable a number of key safety and operational services that would take advantage of this capability" (U.S. Department of Transportation). (2)
A key VII initiative is the development of VSC technologies, intelligent on-board safety applications that share, receive and process data from the surrounding environment. Made possible by recent advances in wireless data communication technology, VSC solutions aim to provide the driver every possible opportunity to avoid an accident, including providing real-time information about the surrounding road conditions as well as nearby vehicles, warnings of hazards, and prediction of dangerous scenarios or imminent collisions.
Vehicle safety applications rely on the creation of autonomous, self-organizing, point-to-multipoint wireless communication networks--so-called ad-hoc networks--connecting vehicles with roadside infrastructure and with each other. In these networks, both vehicles and infrastructure collect local data from their immediate surroundings, process this information and exchange it with other networked vehicles to provide real-time safety information about the immediate surroundings. Data messages, which are transmitted by your car 10 times per second, potentially include your car's location, time and date stamps, vehicle speed & telemetry data, and some sort of vehicle or message identification number.
While over 75 potential uses of VSC technology have been envisioned, current development has focused on 8 core safety applications:
** Traffic Signal Violation Warning: uses infrastructure-to-vehicle communication to warn the driver to stop at the legally prescribed location if the traffic signal indicates a stop and it is predicted that the driver will be in violation.
** Curve Speed Warning: aids the driver in negotiating curves at appropriate speeds.
** Emergency Electronic Brake Lights: when a vehicle brakes hard, the Emergency Electronic Brake light application sends a message to other vehicles following behind.
** Pre-Crash Warning: pre-crash sensing can be used to prepare for imminent, unavoidable collisions.
** Cooperative Forward Collision Warning: aids the driver in avoiding or mitigating collisions with the...
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