1 of 26

Are Tech Bros and Gals leading us away from paths to a more sustainable and just low carbon future?

DR KATE PANGBOURNE, INSTITUTE FOR TRANSPORT STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

BEYOND TECHNOSOLUTIONISM WORKSHOP

22^ND OCTOBER 2021

2 of 26

What Tech calls thinking

For Adrian Daub a key reason why technosolutionism is so prevalent lies with the inventors and their venture capitalists, who are not trying to solve societal or environmental problems, but addressing the problem of how to get a technology embedded in the marketplace, very often at the expense of incumbents.
In other words the solutions that they offer are not designed to address our problems, but distract us from them.
“what goes by the name of innovation is ultimately just an opportunistic exploitation of regulatory gaps?” p6
“This book is about concepts and ideas that pretend to be novel but that are actually old motifs playing dress-up in a hoodie.” p7
The media fascination with tech ‘thought’ leaders is also a distraction – so much of the hard work with new technologies (hard and soft) is down by others, unknowns, and then snapped up later by Big Corp

3 of 26

The next cities are made now out of before

Smart City©
smart city
SMART city
Just city
Green city
Happy city
Walkable city
15 minute city
Etc, etc, etc, etc,

4 of 26

Notion One�Shiny toys

CONSUMPTION, NOVELTY AND CELEBRITY

5 of 26

A haphazard A-Z

6 of 26

Sundar Pichai

7 of 26

Bezos, from Amazon to Blue Origin

“Bezos dreams of moving heavy industry off of Earth and into space to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He wants to lay the foundation for an extra-terrestrial economy where thousands of people are living and working in space. His company is building a rocket as powerful as the one that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon and has partnered with leading defense contractors including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to develop a lunar lander that could bring humans back to the lunar surface. It has designed and built one of the most powerful rocket engines ever made and inked contracts with the United Launch Alliance to supply the engine for its next generation Vulcan rocket. There’s no doubt that Bezos has plenty of vision. The question is: why can’t the second richest man in the world execute on it?” (Guardian article)

8 of 26

Apple, Steve Jobs (left Steve behind)

Steve Jobs leaving Steve Wozniak behind, but at the outset this was a real ‘in the garage’ start-up, self-funded through some sacrifice (Steve Jobs sold his car and Woz sold his programmable calculator)

Woz: A precocious but undisciplined student with a gift for mathematics and an interest in electronics, he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder for one year (1968–69) before dropping out. Following his return to California, he attended a local community college and then the University of California, Berkeley (where he also dropped out). In 1971 Wozniak designed the “Blue Box,” a device for phreaking (hacking into the telephone network without paying for long-distance calls) that he and Jobs, a student at his old high school whom he met about this time, began selling to other students.

9 of 26

Bill Gates, from Microsoft to Philanthropy

Whilst Microsoft, through 365 suite of apps and the cloud, is dominating our lives (and making it harder, in my opinion, to actually get work done and confidently know how to access it again), Bill Gates moved on to philanthropic endeavour. I don’t intend to review it here, but there are at least some innovations that look really useful and tied to real problems, such as the “Janicki omni processor, a $2m machine paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, turns human waste into water and electricity. In poor cities such as Dakar in Senegal, where it has been piloted, the hope is that people will send sewage to sanitation plants to be processed, rather than chucking it into the streets. The Omni Processor exemplifies the Gates Foundation’s approach to philanthropy. Mr Gates likes to apply business principles to doing good, which means focusing on innovative, often technological, solutions with quantifiable results. The processor’s inputs and outputs can be counted. The first version, which arrived in Senegal in 2015, was not designed to deal with sewage filled with sand and rocks as it is in Dakar. It was made of materials that corroded quickly in the city’s sea air. These glitches have been fixed in the “op 2.0”, which arrived in Dakar this year.”

https://www.economist.com/international/2021/09/16/the-gates-foundations-approach-has-both-advantages-and-limits?gclid=CjwKCAjw_L6LBhBbEiwA4c46unR2z9bFMmcbLoZ5q9kKZ0lgGNqU5kcqznPqFPZVyXxqIVxa7HYK4RoClJYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

�

10 of 26

Paypal Mafia

By Robyn Twomey for Fortune Magazine - http://fortune.com/2007/11/13/paypal-mafia/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49313890

From left to right, top to bottom: Jawed Karim, Jeremy Stoppelman, Andrew McCormack, Premal Shah, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, David O. Sacks, Peter Thiel, Keith Rabois, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, Roelof Botha, Russel Simmons. Elon Musk was not able to make the photoshoot due to a scheduling conflict but had an individual shot taken for the profile.

11 of 26

Sampo Hietanan, Founder and CEO Maas Global

I introduced the world to a concept MaaS, Mobility as a Service. It is a concept that is changing the paradigm in transportation by bringing all transport modes together into a simple subscription. I work as the CEO and Founder of MaaS Global the world's first MaaS provider.
My background is in executive and board positions in civil engineering and ITS and I've been founding and heading several international businesses in these fields. I am actively involved in developing new business models in transport and promoting the big shift in changing system structures with modern technology.
And I especially have fun doing all this.

12 of 26

Travis Kalanick�Do we even remember life before Uber?

Uber is available in most large European cities and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

Travis Cordell Kalanick (/ˈkælənɪk/; born August 6, 1976) is an American businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Uber. Previously he worked for Scour, a peer-to-peer file sharing application company, and was the co-founder of Red Swoosh, a peer-to-peer content delivery network that was sold to Akamai Technologies in 2007.

Kalanick was CEO of Uber from 2010 to 2017. He resigned from Uber in 2017, after growing pressure resulting from public reports of the company's unethical corporate culture, including allegations that he ignored reports of sexual harassment at the company. Kalanick retained his seat on the board of directors until he resigned the seat on December 31, 2019. In the weeks leading up to the resignation, Kalanick sold off approximately 90% of his shares in Uber, for a profit of about $2.5 billion. Following the sale, in 2017, Kalanick was ranked 238th on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, with a net worth of $2.6 billion.^[1]

In 2018, Kalanick started a venture fund named 10100, intended to invest in e-commerce, innovation and real estate in emerging markets like China and India. That same year, Kalanick announced an investment of $150 million in real estate redevelopment company City Storage Systems; he also announced that he would serve as its CEO. The company operates a ghost kitchen startup under the name CloudKitchens, for which Kalanick has invested $300 million. CloudKitchens now has a controlling interest in the UK start up FoodStars. [As I understand it, ghost kitchens are directly connected to the massive growth in online food ordering and delivery. Whilst that proved useful for many during pandemic lockdowns, this socio-technical evolution is having a large impact on social practices and the lived experience of urban settings. A couple of years ago, in the before times, we were having a family meal in Edinburgh at Byron (a burger restaurant brand); the entrance and circulation space inside the door was a melee of Deliveroo and Uber Eats riders which really altered the experience of eating out in the mid-range, and not for the better.]

WIKIPEDIA

https://www.inc.com/magazine/201307/christine-lagorio/uber-the-car-service-explosive-growth.html

13 of 26

Zimride to Lyft

Lyft was launched in the summer of 2012 by computer programmers Logan Green and John Zimmer as a service of Zimride, a long-distance intercity carpooling company they founded in 2007. Green had the inspiration for Zimride after sharing rides from the University of California, Santa Barbara campus to visit his girlfriend in Los Angeles.

14 of 26

Lesser-known cousins to Uber/Lyft in RoW

Kapten
Bolt
XoooX
Wheely
ViaVan
Free Now
Gett
Addison Lee
Taxi EU
G7
LeCab
Cabify
Ola
Chauffer Prive
ItTaxi
Didi
Grab
Go-Jek
Blablacar
Jrney
All Thai Taxi
PassApp
LOCA
VATO
Go-Viet
Be
MiCab

Kapten

Founded in France but launched in London in 2019, with over 3,000 drivers serving zones 1–5.

Clean air bonus. Most of Kapten’s cars are hybrid or electric.
“Car free day”. Kapten encourages the use of public transport.
Affordable fees. Rides with Kapten start from just £5.

Bolt is an Estonian ridesharing company which also allows users to request a taxi or private driver from their smartphone.

Other services. Bolt also offers electric scooters and food delivery services.
Low fees. Bolt boasts the lowest commission and fairest treatment of drivers.
Low, affordable fares. Bolt offers competitive fares when compared to competition.

As FREE NOW’s greatest competitor in Portugal, Bolt also enables you to order a taxi you would normally hail on the street. It’s available across more cities in Portugal, including Algarve, Aveiro, Barcelos, Braga, Coimbra, Évora, Leiria, Lisbon, Madeira, Porto, and Viseu. This makes it the best choice for business travelers making more than one stop in this beautiful Atlantic country.

Unlike other ride-hailing apps, Xooox allows cab drivers to find their own fares and set their own prices, placing them back in control of their own livelihoods.

Lists real-time pricing and ETAs. Know exactly what it’ll cost and when you’ll arrive

No rating system for drivers and riders. Don’t worry about miscommunication leading to a bad rating.

Environmentally friendly. Electric-only cars available.

Wheely is the luxury ride-hailing app with professional chauffeurs where users can book single or multiple cars on demand or in advance.

Personalised journeys. Choose your radio station, music stream, temperature and route.
Plan ahead. Schedule your journey in advance or for others.
Superior quality vehicles. Enjoy professional service in professional quality vehicles.

With ViaVan, passengers will be seamlessly matched in real time with other riders headed their way, sharing their trip in a professionally chauffeured vehicle.

Available in London. ViaVan is currently live in London’s zones 1 and 2.
Ridesharing. Share the trip and split the cost with others on your route.
Low fares. Split the fare and keep costs low.

Free Now bills itself as “Europe’s largest taxi app”, working with existing black cab drivers to provide pick-ups within five minutes of digitized hailing. Previously known as My Taxi. Active in over 100 European cities, particularly popular in Barcelona, London, Paris, Berlin, and Dublin.

Supports local taxi drivers. Enjoy the benefits of local, licensed taxi drivers.

Quick service. Pick up a ride in minutes with more than 100,000 drivers around the world.

Pay by the meter. Transparent fares that you can see while you ride.

Similar to Free Now, Gett is focussed on business travel and allows users to hail taxis driven by licensed taxi drivers. Focusing primarily on B2B and corporate travel, Gett is a go-to app for business travelers.

Available in over 1,500 business centres. Enjoy hassle-free business travel across Europe and North America.
Low-cost fares. Keep your business expenses low.
Pay by the meter. Transparent pricing on standard taxi meters.

With roomy Ford Galaxys and VW Sharans, Addison Lee prides itself on quality journeys in cars tailored to your needs.

Other services. Addison Lee also offers a courier service.
Stay connected. Enjoy free 4G Wi-Fi so you can work while you travel.
Fixed fares. Know exactly what you’ll pay before you pay it.

Taxi EU serves over 160 European cities, particularly popular in German metropolitan areas. Taxi EU was created by a number of taxi associations in Germany and claims to be connected with 160,000 taxis in 9 countries but the app’s UI is clunky and not very user-friendly. As a result, the service just isn’t reliable enough to be your go-to taxi app in Berlin.

G7 over 120 European cities, particularly popular in Paris and other French metros. the original taxi booking app (and the only one) on the Parisian scene. With 8,000 drivers at your disposal, it offers the largest taxi fleet as well as pre-booking and personalization options (like English-speaking drivers). The app itself isn’t bad but the biggest drawback is the ride experience. In comparison to apps like Uber with driver rating and strict quality control, the average ride quality on G7 is not quite there.

LeCab is a popular local taxi app that provides a great ride experience in Paris and the surrounding areas. The private driver service gives the city an alternative to taxis and personal cars (like Uber). The app is great and the ride experience is spectacular, offering fixed fares, high-end cars, iPads with entertainment, and a 5-minute courtesy wait. LeCab also offers competitive airport fares (37€ ORY and 48€ CDG). However, availability is still not where it needs to be so the average waiting time is too long in order for this to be your default go-to app.

Cabify is a Spanish ride-hailing app that is particularly popular in Madrid and Barcelona. It works just like Uber – a private hire vehicle that you hail through a mobile app. While it isn’t available elsewhere in Europe, it is active in many South American countries. Cabify was founded in bustling Barcelona itself in 2011, and is already a strong contender in the city thanks to its fully licensed black car fleet, spacious and clean vehicles, and the number of ways you can personalize your journey. While the app design could be improved, the ride experience is the best you could get anywhere in Europe, hands down! Cabify drivers are employees on a salary so they will never cancel on you. They are always punctual, reliable and cordial and by protocol will always offer you a bottle of water and free wifi – a whole different level of service for the same price or less.

Popular Indian cab company Ola launched in London in 2018 and now also serves South Wales, South West, Merseyside and West Midlands.

Paris: Chauffeur Privé is the local personal car hiring competitor to Uber (recently acquired by Daimler). It’s as popular as Uber with over 18,000 drivers and 2 million customers. The app is user-friendly and the ride experience is better than Uber. The drivers are professional, the cars are great and you can choose your preferred car type. Chauffeur Privé is your answer to traveling around the historic streets of Paris like a VIP.

A local, business, ItTaxi unifies all of the cars in the Unione Radiotaxi d’Italia. It’s available in 78 different cities in Italy. You can become a member of the ItTaxi Club and accumulate membership points that you can spend on free rides. The app also records your most frequent trips so it’s easier for you to book when needed.

https://www.travelperk.com/blog/top-taxi-apps-europe/

15 of 26

Musk, Tesla, Boring, Space X

Founded	What it does/did	Who bought it?
Zip2	Online city guide (an early ‘content provider’)	Compaq
X.Com (Paypal)	online financial services/payments company	Ebay
SpaceX	Build/operate space craft for commercial space travel; NASA contracted it for cargo to ISS
Tesla	Produces “affordable”, mass-market electric cars as well as battery products and solar roofs	Daimler owns a stake; strategic partnership with Toyota
The Boring Company	devoted to boring and building tunnels in order to reduce street traffic.

Elon Musk is a South African-born American entrepreneur and businessman who founded X.com in 1999 (which later became PayPal), SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003. Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers. He taught himself game coding as a child. He has degrees in Economics and Physics. After leaving Penn, Musk headed to Stanford University in California to pursue a PhD in energy physics. However, his move was timed perfectly with the Internet boom, and he dropped out of Stanford after just two days to become a part of it, launching his first company, Zip2 Corporation in 1995.

(https://www.biography.com/business-figure/elon-musk)

This table is incomplete, it all gets a bit weird, with Hyperloop, loops, flamethrowers and

16 of 26

Mark Zuckerberg: social media domination

Facebook – 2.74 billion

YouTube* – 2.29 billion

Whatsapp – 2.0 billion

Facebook Messenger – 1.3 billion

Instagram – 1.2 billion

Weixin/WeChat – 1.2 billion

TikTok – 689 million

QQ – 617 million

Douyin – 600 million

Sina Weibo – 511 million

* YouTube is owned by Alphabet

17 of 26

Notion Two: Symbolic role of innovation (and tech start ups)

18 of 26

Head in the clouds

NOTION THREE: 21^ST CENTURY SOMA – ADDICTIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND THE NARROWING OF EDUCATION

19 of 26

hooked

20 of 26

The new colonists

NOTION FOUR: CAPITALIST AND LIBERTARIAN MISDIRECTIONS

21 of 26

Believe it until you see it

THE MISDIRECTION RHETORIC OF TECHNOSOLUTIONISM

22 of 26

The Innovation Problem

OUR PROBLEM(S)

Congestion
Air pollution
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Environmental degradation
Biodiversity loss/extinctions
Social inequality
Asthma, cardiovascular diseases, dementias, diabetes
Unhappiness
Climate change/climate disasters

THEIR PROBLEM

Getting the technological solution into the market and keeping it there
AND/OR
Continuing to gain venture capital/float an IPO etc
Maintaining personal wealth

23 of 26

The Solution Problem

OUR SOLUTIONS

Less consumption
Active travel
Proximity
Sharing
Arts, culture
Adaptation and mitigation

THEIR SOLUTIONS

Disruption
Subscription
Dependence/Addiction
Algorithms
Automation

24 of 26

Better ideas for a civilised decarbonised future

Proximity for Sociable Neighbourhoods

Biodiversity and Environmental Protection/Enhancement

Socially just innovation

Appropriate Use of Technology

Bicycles, e-Bikes, cargo bikes, “Car-club” vehicle sharing schemes, buses, trains, integrated ticketing, environmental monitoring, energy efficiency, demand reduction, resource reuse and recycling,

Role of regulation

Control over our own data, Rolling back surveillance, Building control, Control of housing costs

Investment in arts and culture

Participation more than consumption

25 of 26

Tentative Research Agenda

(Longitudinal) social network analysis to lay bare the trajectories and linkages of the tech entrepreneurs and venture capital funds
Discourse analysis which includes humanities
Integrating system dynamics methodologies with a socio-technical systems lens
Drawing on a wider range of thinkers across fields and intellectual traditions, including decolonisation of thought
Methodologies of co-production and action research to evaluate, highlight and amplify appropriate innovations and develop an ethically-founded rhetoric (as the art of persuasion) to allow the better ideas to grow faster than the technosolutionist discourses

26 of 26

Final word

IT ISN’T ALL ABOUT THE URBAN, WHICH WILL ALWAYS DEPEND ON THE PRODUCTS OF THE RURAL. WHAT IS THE SMART RESPONSE?