  CHARTOPOLIS is a multi-faceted sociotechnical testbed meant to aid in
building connections among engineers, psychologists, anthropologists,
ethicists, and artists. Superficially, it is an urban autonomous-vehicle
testbed that includes both a physical environment for small-scale robotic
vehicles as well as a high-fidelity virtual replica that provides extra
flexibility by way of computer simulation. However, both environments have been
developed to allow for participatory simulation with human drivers as well.
Each physical vehicle can be remotely operated by human drivers that have a
driver-seat point of view that immerses them within the small-scale testbed,
and those same drivers can also pilot high-fidelity models of those vehicles in
a virtual replica of the environment. Juxtaposing human driving performance
across these two contexts will help identify to what extent human driving
behaviors are sensorimotor responses or involve psychological engagement with a
system that has physical, not virtual, side effects and consequences.
Furthermore, through collaboration with artists, we have designed the physical
testbed to make tangible the reality that technological advancement causes the
history of a city to fork into multiple, parallel timelines that take place
within populations whose increasing isolation effectively creates multiple
independent cities in one. Ultimately, CHARTOPOLIS is meant to challenge
engineers to take a more holistic view when designing autonomous systems, while
also enabling them to gather novel data that will assist them in making these
systems more trustworthy.
