Autonomous machines prompt debate

Legislators and opinion-formers need to start thinking about how autonomous machines like driverless trucks, surgical robots and smart homes that keep an eye on their occupants could affect society, according to the Royal Academy of Engineering.

In a new report, the Academy points out that the technology to develop such systems is either already available or closer to reality than many people think — and the legal system needs to catch up fast.

‘We’re very used to automatic systems, such as the braking assistance technology now standard in most cars’, said Prof Will Stewart of Southampton University, one of the contributors to the report. ‘But traditionally, engineers have designed these things so that they’re used with a human operator. As we move towards autonomous systems, we’re taking the human further and further away from the machine.’

The report’s authors looked at two particular types of system — autonomous transport, which they believe is maybe ten years off and most likely to first be used on heavy lorries; and smart homes, particularly in reference to the elderly, who could benefit from health monitoring systems and even devices to provide ‘companionship’, such as robotic pets.