The Social nature of technology

In 2017, a good example of the clear manifestation of the "social nature of technology" was the "Ferrite Magnetic Road Marker Magnetic Guide System (Development, Aichi Steel Co., Ltd., Utilization, Advanced Mobility Co., Ltd.) " in the "Vehicle Automatic Driving Technology Demonstration Test". Automated driving of vehicles is the search for new technologies derived from part of the search for the next generation vehiclular society in the background of environmental problems and the super-aging society problem, but the problem of "how much can the vehicle (machine) substitute for the security ability of humans (drivers)?" is the most important and the core issue of the "social nature of technology".

As an experience of mankind, this is similar to the case of introducing robots in industrial production activities.
As evidenced by the experience there, the common sense fact is that "robots are suited to simple and repeated work, and humans have superior security capabilities that are flexible." In driving, drivers who have received basic training in driving school drive on the street, etc. irrespective of the time of day or weather drive at considerable speed all the time making critical adjustments (security). On the inverse of this security capability is the human "erratic nature", where sudden “security” lapses such as sleepiness or inattention causes traffic accidents in a moment. It is unprecedented in science and technology to have human security actions that are impossible to set conditions, predict, measure, and have many uncertainties as a controlled system. Therefore, the biggest challenge in the automotive operation of vehicles would be to say: "How much can human (driver) security capabilities be substituted by machines, regardless of day and night or changes in weather?"

For this reason, many on-site verification tests have been conducted in Japan, which are also led by government agencies. Aichi Steel's Ferrite Magnetic Road Markers and Bus Body-Mounted High-Sensitivity Magnetic Sensor (MI Sensor) Array Module Combined Magnetic Guide System carried out the 3 following tests in 2017 by installing ferrite magnets on the road surface at 2m intervals and mounting the sensor module on the bottom of the test bus body of Advanced Mobility Co., Ltd.

The results are as follows: (1) Some reports from the media drive day at the Shiga Prefectural Road Station demonstration test said that “at times the bus drifted to the outside the road due to a problem in capturing GPS signals” and other troubles with GPS, image recognition and Lidar were reported. All of them were influenced by day and night and by weather, and it was reaffirmed that they could not "recognize with security ability regardless of day and night and weather like humans." On the other hand, in the magnetic guide system, there was no trouble as expected. This is because the marker magnetism can be stably detected regardless of time of day or weather, unlike human beings. In the vehicle track recognition test for snow coverage in (2), it is a test to prevent "drivers (humans) of snow removal vehicles from losing the roadway (lane) and falling into the side ditch " during snow coverage, and ensures driving safety from " human-like" to "beyond human". In case (3), it is a demonstration test of the task of “stopping the bus precisely at the bus stop for the elderly to use the bus, and guidance of the bus is necessary from the approach route to the bus stop. This can also be said to be a system that "consistently docks more precisely than humans ." Magnetization of the magnet is semi-permanent, and the magnetic field generated by the magnet is an extremely stable medium that is not affected by time of day or weather. The field demonstration tests (1), (2) and (3) are typical examples of "the social nature of technology (acceptability of new technology to the community)", and is like a textbook of "the existence of the technology which is useful for the world".

As the press announcement of Aichi Steel, in the previous magnetic guide systems, there was a magnetic guide system (unmanned operation bus IMTS between the Aichi Expo site in 2005) in which a powerful but expensive rare earth magnet marker which generates a magnetic field stronger than the environmental magnetic noise was installed on the road surface, and a magnetic sensor of low sensitivity was attached to the lower part of the car body, but the system became expensive, and the prospect of practical use could not be obtained. Therefore, this time, using the already established "mass-produced technology of the high-sensitivity micro magnetic sensor (MI sensor) chip for electronic compass" as a "technology base", Aichi Steel has developed a magnetic guide system by developing a "magnetic sensing system for detecting a magnetic field signal smaller than the environmental magnetic field noise" which combines a multiple differential system of multiple MI sensors and digital signal processing technology such as an accelerating digital filter and using a ferrite magnet (low-cost magnet) with a weak magnetic field as a road magnetic marker., By this, a practical magnetic guide system was realized.

Although this new magnetic guide system has many important implications, the following three points will be summarized.