Wensi Yang

As autonomous driving enters taxi service systems, future mobility should not be understood simply as a technological upgrade. It should be seen as a socio-technical transition. Existing research focuses mainly on technical performance, efficiency, acceptance, and human-machine interaction. It has paid much less attention to labour reconfiguration, shifts in service roles, and the reorganisation of human value in real service processes. Therefore, this research focuses on the transitional stage in which taxi services move towards autonomous driving, and using black cab services as its main research context. It examines how drivers’ tasks, such as explaining, reassuring, caring, handling exceptions, and taking responsibility, may be retained, divided, transferred, or moved into the background once driving tasks are redistributed. It also considers how these changes may affect drivers’ transition and passengers’ trust and acceptance of the new service.

In terms of methodology, this study adopts a practice-based design research approach. It combines semi-structured interviews, thematic analysis, service mapping and co-design workshops to identify key service tasks, support needs and situations where human involvement may remain important. These findings will inform the development and refinement of a human-machine collaborative service model. Compared with research that focuses mainly on acceptance measurement or macro-level forecasting, this approach might be more capable of examining how service roles and forms of human support may be reorganised, and how this shapes experience and perceptions of responsibility.

The core question of this study is not merely ‘whether drivers will disappear’. Rather, it asks: ‘As autonomous driving technologies are developed and introduced into mobility services, what kinds of human-machine collaborative service models might be developed to organise the relationship between drivers, passengers, and autonomous driving technology in a more responsible way?’ The drivers‘ work involves situated judgement, communication, and assistance. In service-based mobility, Care, Dignity and Presence should not be treated as additional ‘soft’ factors. They should be recognised as important criteria for evaluating future autonomous mobility services. This research does not assume that the driver role must be retained. Instead, it asks: ‘In which situations, and in what ways, is human support still needed?’ It also asks: ‘How such support might provide space for affected drivers to adapt and transition, while helping passengers who are not yet ready to accept fully driverless services?’

This research aims to develop a human-machine collaborative service model for the transition of taxi services towards autonomous driving. It will translate care, dignity and presence into discussable and evaluable design requirements. The model will clarify which forms of support may remain with human involvement, which can be shared with the system or other support roles, and how related responsibilities should be organised and expressed in different service scenarios. In practical terms, the study will provide design guidance for role allocation, forms of support, and the expression of responsibility in future mobility systems. It will also offer reference points for industry practice and policy discussion.