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Sex on the move? Autonomous vehicles ‘could be used as mobile brothels’

‘Red light’ takes on new traffic meaning after researchers warn that autonomous cars could be used by prostitutes

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Autonomous cars could be used as mobile brothels, industry experts have suggested.

A paper entitled Autonomous Vehicles and the Future of Urban Tourism published by University of Surrey and Oxford researchers predicts a ‘phenomenon’ of commercial sex in driverless cars as the vehicles (AVs) become more popular as public transport.

It says: “While SCAVs (shared, connected and autonomous vehicles) will likely be monitored to deter passengers having sex or using drugs in them, and to prevent violence, such surveillance may be rapidly overcome, disabled or removed.

“Moreover, personal CAVs will likely be immune from such surveillance. Such private CAVs may also be put to commercial use, as it is just a small leap to imagine Amsterdam’s red light district ‘on the move.’”

It also predicts that autonomous vehicles could be used as overnight pods, giving tourists the ability to visit more attractions. The paper says: “CAVs could offer personalised private travel or high-end luxury mobile accommodation. For tourists short on time, this could maximise opportunities to see multiple sites and travel overnight.”

As a result, the hotel industry could suffer, while bus tours could be killed off.

Professor Scott Cohen, head of tourism and transport at the University of Surrey, said: “The visitor economy will be gradually transformed if AVs become fully automated and mainstream, leading to a future where hordes of small AVs could congest urban attractions, hop-on hop-off city bus tours may go out of business altogether, motorways between cities could fill at night with slow-moving AVs carrying sleeping occupants, and commercial sex in moving AVs becomes a growing phenomenon.”

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