How to turn yourself into a virtual travel companion in someone else’s car: Drawing design approaches from the philosophy of mind

Technological advancements in the development of autonomous vehicles have been focusing on the very fundamental issues such as functionality and safety. On the other hand, design researchers have started to explore possible everyday life interactions between people and automated vehicles, as well as probing the acceptance of such a disruptive technology by people and the emergence of trust from humans towards such cars. In this paper, I speculate on the possibility that autonomous driving might enable new human-to-human relationships. Departing from the Co-Drive concept, which envisions a new way of travelling and socializing inside the car by sharing a car trip with a remote virtual companion, I focus on the design challenges into the creation of one’s own virtual avatar who inhabits the car as the remote passenger and I draw possible design approaches into the construction of a (virtual) self-representation from the philosophy of mind.