Dear colleagues AIR-L members may be interested in the upcoming event: Sam Hind (University of Manchester) will be in conversation with Alex Gekker (University of Amsterdam) on Thursday 21st November, 16-17.30 (GMT) to launch his new book, Driving Decisions: How Autonomous Vehicles Make Sense of the World<https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1749-1> (Palgrave). The event is supported by the Centre for Digital Humanities, Cultures and Media<https://www.digital-humanities.manchester.ac.uk/>. To sign-up to the (online) event, follow the link: https://www.qualtrics.manchester.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_eDqtLrOJ5Cl7nNA Any questions (or invites!) feel free to email: sam.hind@manchester.ac.uk About the book Driving Decisions: How Autonomous Vehicles Make Sense of the World examines the phenomenon of autonomous driving, and the ongoing, complex, costly, and contentious quest to automate driving. Principally organized around the concept of algorithmic decision-making, the book considers how different mapping, sensing, and machine learning (ML)-dependent capabilities are gifted to autonomous vehicles through different kinds of technical work: from computer science students annotating visual data in industry-funded research centres to software engineers designing ‘end-to-end’ ML models at autonomous vehicle start-ups. The book intends to complicate, and question, typical understandings of autonomous driving by going ‘under the hood’, challenging the technological determinism or ‘decisionism’ that advocates offer of an inevitable, fully automated, future. Drawing on seven years of research in a range of empirical contexts, the book will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of science and technology studies, media studies, digital sociology, human geography, and mobilities and transport studies. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-97-1749-1 - Sam Hind<http://samhind.com> Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture Programme Director, MA Digital Media, Culture and Society<https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/masters/courses/list/20641/ma-digital-media-culture-and-society/> University of Manchester, UK office hours sign-up: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/SHOfficeHours latest article (2024): from united steel to waymo: industrializing simulation https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-024-02051-6 latest chapter (2024): automated mapping cultures https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003327578-25 latest preprint (2024): simulation and the reality gap: moments in a prehistory of synthetic data (w/ James Steinhoff) https://doi.org/10.33767/osf.io/np3vb latest book (2024): driving decisions: how autonomous vehicles make sense of the world (palgrave) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1749-1