Marc Andreessen famously said that software is eating the world. At that time in 2011, Amazon was showing us that e-commerce can put the biggest brick and mortar bookstores out of business, Google had just bought a phone company in purchasing Motorola, and HP exited the PC business to focus on software.

Within years, software companies became so successful and their negative externalities so significant that they started experiencing backlash.

Following the 2016 US presidential elections, social media was blamed for creating echo chambers and for being a tool for Russian interference in our elections, Twitter was called out for not doing more to stop the 400,000 bots that sent millions of tweets (at least 1.4 million people engaged with tweets from Russian trolls), that, at the least, distorted the truth and, at the worst, tricked millions of voters.

In the last few years, 250 YouTube advertisers pulled their ads after they discovered that their ads were getting displayed next to racist content, half a million users requested to delete their Uber accounts following Susan Fowler’s blog post, and Facebook was asked to testify in front of Congress for what happened with Cambridge Analytica.

The “techlash” is being felt by companies around the world. In short, today, the world is eating software.

But there is a better way forward. A path that leads to further innovation while benefiting the communities that technology companies operate in. Using the very technology that is creating the “techlash,” we can create public good by focusing on a broader set of social goals rather than simply on OKRs.

Cities as partner in public value creation

We believe that tech companies need to build partnerships to help them navigate through the complexities of products that have a profound impact on society — and cities can be their partners..

Companies have much to gain from proactively understanding and addressing public needs. Tech companies, armed with data and the ability to conduct rapid A/B tests, are great at segmenting the market and finding their core users. But what if that means you have blind spots around how your product will be perceived by the wider public? And, what if you are missing out on huge opportunities to create public value? There is a way to have a broader perspective from the outset that can benefit everyone.

Cities are on the front lines of talking to and understanding the needs of the public every day. From town halls to neighborhood meetings to keeping tabs on complaints, city staff have an ongoing relationship and conversation with residents on issues like transit, privacy, safety and numerous other areas. Local governments have expertise in what it means to deploy new technologies in urban environments, can predict and unpack concerns about “big brother” and public safety, and know how to communicate and work together with communities.

Autonomous Vehicles: San Jose’s Approach

For example, there is a large gap between the way most companies are approaching autonomous vehicles (AVs) and the way public officials think about them. For most companies today, we might imagine that the typical user is an early adopter in Silicon Valley who commutes an hour each way to their tech jobs. In fact, most of the future-looking concepts of AVs today look like race cars. However, we believe there is a significant user base outside of this group — from residents with disabilities to older residents — that we should include as we roll out this new piece of technology. We also need to focus on safe, shared, electric vehicles that lower GHG emissions and build safer, more walkable cities that have longevity.

At the beginning of 2017, the City of San Jose convened roundtables of Silicon Valley autonomous vehicle companies and shared with them our vision for AVs.

We asked the companies what they would want from city government and heard that they want us to share use cases, designate testing zones, provide access to city data and road infrastructure. We shared that the city would want to ensure that this next generation of mobility would be safe, equitable, and sustainable — and that data and learning should be shared both ways. Having this kind of open dialogue with industry at the start of a technology lifecycle is the new way of working.

Based on these and many other conversations, we issued an RFI in June 2017. We outlined specific use cases around connecting people to their workplaces, connecting low-income areas to public transit, and connecting our airport and train station.

To enable testing, we gave companies access to curbside pickup and dropoff spaces, electric vehicle charging stations, and an open API for our real-time traffic signal data. Because residents may have safety concerns about AVs, we also offered to help companies engage our community and work more closely with our first responders as we see an increasing number of AVs on our roads.

In return, we asked companies to partner with us to create public value around data-sharing, learning how to deploy this technology safely, and working with our police department to ensure our first responders understand how to interact with this new technology.

In the end, we received 31 proposals, the most enthusiastic response to autonomous vehicle RFIs of any city to date. Later this year, we will launch the first of these pilots, a partnership with Daimler and Bosch to provide a shuttle service on selected routes in downtown San Jose. This is just the beginning for AV deployment in our city.

Software has changed the world, which means tech companies now have the obligation and opportunity to be strong members of communities they operate in. Fortunately, cities have been interfacing with the public for a long time. By working together, we can scale technology in an inclusive, responsible manner.

To learn more about San Jose’s approach to Public Private Partnerships with Autonomous Vehicle Companies, check out our Autonomous Vehicle Playbook.

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