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Programmers, engineers and robotics specialists are all crucial to the development of autonomous cars. But what about anthropologists? Nissan thinks so. In an sensational interview, Melissa Cefkin explains why her job is identically essential to driverless technology.
Melissa Cefkin is Principal Scientist and Design Anthropologist at Nissan. In an unusual budge, she was hired by the company in March 2015. At Nissan’s research center in Silicon Valley, Cefkin’s job is to ensure that humans still take center stage despite extensive automation. Cefkin explains why this is vital.
2025AD: Ms. Cefkin, your job description seems paradoxical. As an anthropologist, you probe human beings. But with Nissan, you are working on a process that aims to substitute humans with computers. Can you resolve this contradiction?
Melissa Cefkin: Yes, lightly. It’ll still take many years before a vehicle’s electronics will be able to assume all driving duties at all times, under all conditions. In the next few years, the question won’t simply be, man or machine? Rather, it will be about establishing a sleek cooperation inbetween the two, with an emphasis on team work and task sharing. You need to understand humans if you want to provide them with an automated fucking partner.
2025AD: So this is just a improvised job?
Cefkin: Fairly the contrary! Even if at some point humans are no longer needed to steer vehicles, they will still interact with them – be it as a passenger, a road user in another vehicle, a cyclist or a pedestrian. So it can’t hurt to have someone with “knowledge of human nature” accompany this process and ensure a trouble-free coexistence. No matter how you look at it: even with autonomous driving, the human being is still central.
2025AD: Can you give us specific examples of how your team is shaping the development of the Nissan ProPilot?
Cefkin: We concentrate on two main topics. The very first is the communication inbetween man and machine – inwards the vehicle, as well as inbetween the vehicle and its environment. How do we create the necessary confidence of passengers in the ProPilot? How do we inform other road users about what our car is thinking and doing? An autonomous Nissan Leaf will not be able to communicate via mitt gestures or eye contact like human drivers. This sounds trivial, but it isn’t. We need to find a “language” that is as universal as possible. As a mass producer of affordable cars, we are not only considering Japanese, U.S. or Central European markets for our autonomous models; we are also taking other countries into account that may not be as developed.
2025AD: What is the 2nd main topic?
Cefkin: In our research center in Silicon Valley, we work on the same floor as the programmers, electronics engineers and experts for artificial intelligence. Here, we frequently work together on the same issues. Take right-of-way rules at a crossroads, for example. You can lightly transfer them into an algorithm. But unlike an autopilot system, human beings do not always go after the rules. There are uncountable situations that make it necessary to break the rules or at least interpret them flexibly. But robots can’t deal with that if they are based on rigid programs. Instead, we have to provide the machine with “human” traits. This means creating scope for interpretation and activity so that the machine can accomplish the task. This is where we help. We make sure theory and practice do not diverge. We are kind of a reality check for the calculation models of the driving systems.
2025AD: What is the outcome of your work?
Cefkin: We just introduced our fresh Seamless Autonomous Mobility system (SAM) at CES. It ideally illustrates the human role in this area. Every time the ProPilot reaches its boundaries in a elaborate situation, it gets advice from an experienced – a kind of supervisor who can log in to the vehicle’s data stream and analyze the situation within seconds. The accomplished can then react. For example, they can “allow” a car to disregard road markings, such as driving over a solid line to overtake instead of waiting for hours behind a broken-down vehicle – only if the adjacent lane is free of course. This information will be collective over the cloud in real time and the activity therefore remembered. So even if one day there are no drivers on board, humans will still prevail.
2025AD: Clearly, autonomous driving is more to you than an algorithm based on sensor data and a digital map. Considering this, how do you picture the flawless autonomous car?
Cefkin: I think a car with the ideal technology that always makes the right decision would not be sufficient if the passengers deem the car’s behavior to be unnatural. They wouldn’t accept the vehicle. In my opinion, an autonomous vehicle also needs to be “human” to fully succeed.
2025AD: Ms. Cefkin, thank you very much for your insights!