A report on the social, legal and ethical issues generated by the design, development and use of autonomous systems was published by the Royal Academy of Engineering last month. I produced the report based on presentations and discussions at a workshop at the Academy, where a number of experts in fields likely to employ autonomous systems discussed the timescales for their introduction, their potential impacts and the wider issues that they might give rise to. Participants were from the fields of defence and aerospace, AI and IT, surgery and healthcare, and transport. The final report focusses on the use of autonomous systems in the form of driverless vehicles and smart homes - two areas where the deployment of autonomous systems is likely to be imminent and to have a significant effect on peoples' lives. It calls for debate into the acceptability of these technologies, and the best ways to garner their benefits while minimising risks.There was a lot of press interest in the report, with stories from the BBC, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Reuters, The Engineer, New Scientist and the Economist.
