The Ecosystem of Trust (EoT): Enabling Effective Deployment of Autonomous Systems Through Collaborative and Trusted Ecosystems

An autonomous, zero-emission ferry can be an innovative transport and mobility system solution to tackle environmental challenges for twin transitions by, for example, reducing road, tunnel and bridge construction, and eventually air pollution. Nevertheless, deploying such autonomous systems to increase inhabitant mobility especially in cities surrounded by water is not necessarily a straightforward process. We propose an ecosystem of trust (EoT) as a framework to increase the success rate of deploying technology into society so that it can create value for sustainability. Here, an EoT is defined as a complex and interdependent system where trust is present among and between stakeholders (e.g. passengers), technologies and infrastructures, institutions and governance, and the artificial and natural environments, while creating and delivering value for all living creatures within it. These interdependencies (i.e. ripple effect) are key to the EoT framework, implying that if a change is impacting one element, it has an impact to others as well. These interdependencies are also connectors that can identify actors or elements that may not necessarily be identified otherwise (e.g. more vulnerable or minority stakeholders). A real-world use case of an autonomous, zero-emission ferry developed originally in Trondheim, Norway, is used to demonstrate EoTs from stakeholders' perspectives. EoTs aim to achieve epistemic justice so that technology can be deployed successfully by focusing on and addressing all stakeholders' concerns, interest, and motivation equally as well as ensuring that risk is managed, trust is shared and value is created. Our paper contributes to the debate on just transitions of mobility systems from the perspective of an industry actor.

Keywords: Autonomy, Artificial intelligence, Sustainability, Complex systems, Trustworthiness, Adoption.