Driverless cars – what do you think about them? Do you think they’ll improve our lives, or not? There’s a chance to have YOUR say in Coventry this month, at an Ideas Café event hosted by WMG, University of Warwick.

Researchers from WMG’s Experiential Engineering Group are running a free event in the heart of the UK’s ‘motor city’, to explore the public’s attitudes towards self-driving cars, and to hear different thoughts on the future of motoring.

The event – which will take place at the Transport Museum on 30 June – will give participants the opportunity to discuss whether they trust driverless technology, and how they think self-driving cars will affect communities and the environment.

The event will be in the format of an Ideas Café which brings people together informally, over tea and cake to hear about and discuss the issues relevant to them.

Dr Rebecca Cain from WMG’s Experiential Engineering Group commented:

“The potential of driverless car technology is really exciting, however with all new technology it is important to understand its impact on people and society. We hope that our Ideas café will allow the public’s hopes, dreams and fears around driverless cars to inform our future research.

“Ultimately we want to be part of developing technology which will be accepted and make people’s lives better. To do this we need to have public conversations to bring a societal and human-centred perspective into our scientific research.”

Cutting-edge technology and research at WMG – in areas such as cyber security and complex electrical systems – are making safe, autonomous vehicles a reality.

The Experiential Engineering Group aims to understand, design and optimise people’s experiences with current and future products, technology, environments and services. The researchers work at both a user and community level, particularly around understanding acceptance of new and disruptive technologies.

Members of the group include designers, engineers, ergonomists, psychologists, computer scientists and healthcare professionals who each bring their specialist expertise to optimising experiences for human-centred innovation.

The Ideas Café is an early evening, interactive event which brings together members of the public and Warwick academics to discuss and engage in the exciting research that they are undertaking. The evening is informal and designed to promote different ways of thinking about research and its practical applications in real life situations.

The event, ‘Imagining a Driverless Future’ will take place on Friday 30 June at the Coventry Transport Museum, 13:30 - 16:30. Afternoon refreshments are provided.

It is being hosted alongside Coventry University and Transport for West Midlands.

To register to attend the workshop, click here.