How cars became mobile spatial media: A geographical political economy of on-board navigation Luis F. Alvarez Leon While cars, by definition and necessity, have always been (auto)mobile, they are not often considered, or studied, as media. In light of this, the present article seeks to elucidate the technological, political, and economic forces that have converged to transform cars into mobile spatial media. This article provides a framework to contextualize the nodal role of navigation in creating the conditions for a large-scale disruption in automobile technologies with potentially far-reaching impacts: autonomous navigation. The arguments at the core of this article bring together, and build on, recent theoretical developments in (a) locative media, (b) automobiles as mobile media, and (c) new mapping technologies, practices, and spatial media to provide a coherent perspective of cars as mobile spatial media. Informed by a geographical political economy of navigation, this perspective contributes to our understanding of cars in the context of digital and informational capitalism as these vehicles undergo qualitative transformations catalyzed by increased digital interconnections and comprehensive automation. /// History and Status of Automated Driving in the United States Sven Beiker Research in the field of automated driving has a long history in the United States. From the very early efforts in the 1930s and 1940s when automated highway systems were proposed and which were researched intensively from the 1950s to 1990s, the field gained new momentum and direction in the early 2000s when the military called for the DARPA Grand Challenge, which showcased what was possible in the field of infrastructure independent automated vehicles. These initiatives were the starting point for the recent push towards automated vehicles in the interest of road traffic safety and efficiency. This article reviews the history of automated driving research in the U.S. and discusses where the field is headed with players from industry and academia, as it also points out the role of the government in setting rules and driving innovation. /// Talking about automated vehicles: What do levels of automation do? Debbie Hopkins, Tim Schwanen Automated vehicles have become a popular topic of conversation. Initially, these conversations were limited to technology developers, innovators and engineers, as they worked to progressed the various technologies and systems that are required to create automated vehicles. Then, over time, these conversations extended to other communities; lawyers, insurers, planners, policymakers, social scientists, and various publics all began hearing, and talking about automated vehicles – also known as ‘driverless’, ‘self-driving’, and ‘autonomous’ vehicles. Levels of automation emerged as a way to depict gradations or categories of autonomy, with tasks divided between those for the machine and those for humans. In this paper, we critically reflect upon the dominance of levels of automation – up to seven sequential ‘steps’ - proposed by a number of industry organisations. Focusing on the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Standard J3016, we signal the intended and unintended performative effects of these levels. We argue that current discourses on automated vehicles have been underpinned by a techno-centric, expert-dominated logic, and point to the benefits of more dispersed, geographically contingent, and socio-technical perspectives in re-framing the dominant discourse and allowing for more nuanced spatial and temporal understandings on future systems of (automated) mobility. /// How software matters: Connective tissue and self-driving cars Janine Morley Drawing on the example of self-driving and connected cars, this chapter explores how the software that is being integrated into, and transforming, everyday objects, might be conceptualised within theories of practice. It argues that, although software is an especially dynamic and intangible ‘material’, it can still be accommodated within existing conceptualisations of materiality in practice theories. The automation that software enables can be positioned as part of practice complexes, even when it does not play a direct, constitutive role in any single practice. In addition, through performing varied work in connecting practices and enabling ‘feedback’ over time and space, software can be understood to form part of the connective tissue by which practice complexes hang together and change.