The urban mobility landscape is currently undergoing a period of major uncertainties, largely driven by a multitude of emerging technologies. This chapter aims to explore plausible future changes in urban space allocation from the combined emergence of mobility services and vehicle automation. To this end the intuitive logics scenario analysis is applied to a case in the Helsinki region. PESTLE workshops were used to provide a baseline for assessing driving forces, and for drafting the scenario matrix. Scenario plots highlight the importance of mobility service models, governance approach, and changes in the mobility culture. Furthermore, potential emerging governance approaches are discussed in a focus group with local transport planners to identify new policy levers, such as data and algorithm governance. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the wider implications for steering governance and innovation processes, whereas highlighting the complexity of political conflicts between urban space allocation and technological development.

As an emerging technology, the potential deployment of self-driving vehicles (SDVs) in cities is attributed with significant uncertainties and anticipated consequences requiring responsible governance of innovation processes. Despite a growing number of studies on policies and governance arrangements for managing the introduction of SDVs, there is a gap in understanding about country-specific governance strategies and approaches. This chapter addresses this gap by presenting a comparative analysis of SDV-related policy documents in Finland, UK, and Germany, three countries which are actively seeking to promote the introduction of SDVs and which have distinct administrative traditions. Our analytical framework is based on the set of premises about technology as a complex sociotechnical phenomenon, operationalized using governance cultures and sociotechnical imaginaries concepts. Our comparative policy document analysis focuses on the assumed roles for SDV technology, the identified domains and mechanisms of governance, and the assumed actors responsible for steering the development process. The results highlight similarities in pro-automation values across three different countries, while also uncovering important differences outside the domain of traditional transport policy instruments. In addition, the results identify different types of potential technological determinism, which could restrict opportunities for responsiveness and divergent visions of mobility futures in Europe. Concluding with a warning against further depolitization of technological development and a dominant focus on economic growth, we identify several necessary directions for further developing governance and experimentation processes.