Researchers Study Design Fixes for Sex in Robotaxis

The San Francisco Standard interviewed multiple people who claimed to have had sex in robotaxis operated by General Motors' now-defunct Cruise. “There's no one to tell you, 'You can't do that.' It gets to the point where you're more and more and more comfortable, and if you're with someone, like a more serious partner, it can escalate to other activities,” one man told the Standard. The account describes a setting without a human driver to enforce social norms.

Rouchitsas said the issue is not new to vehicles. “The interiors of vehicles has been sexualized and appropriated for sex since forever in popular culture. You can see it in movies, you can see it in lyrics, you can see it in photography,” he said. The workshop considered whether design changes can address behavior inside autonomous vehicles.

A key difference between a robotaxi and a human-driven ride is the removal of the social obligation to interact with a human driver, according to the report. Riders do not need to make small talk or listen to a driver's opinions. That can lead them to assume more privacy than the cameras and ridership terms and conditions provide.

The behavior predates robotaxis. People began posting footage of themselves having sex from the driver's seat not long after Tesla Autopilot started letting drivers go hands-free. More recently, a pair of teenagers who hired a Waymo spent their ride getting drunk and shot gel beads out the windows, an incident described as a hard lesson this summer.

The Cruise robotaxis referenced in the interviews are no longer in service. General Motors shut down the Cruise robotaxi operation, and the vehicles' interiors have become part of the discussion about what passengers may do when no human driver is present. The Sweden workshop's focus was whether design can help address the problem.