Jiangbo Yu from McGill University discusses intelligent transportation in From Autonomy to Agency:

As agentic mobility systems become increasingly feasible, AgVs stand as a critical component, offering a foundation for designing systems that are not only smarter and more efficient, but also more communicative, collaborative, and just.

For years, the conversation around self-driving technology has been anchored by the word 'autonomy'. We measure progress in SAE levels, a scale defined by a vehicle's independence from human control. This paper makes a compelling case that 'autonomy' is no longer a sufficient term to describe the future we are building. Autonomy simply means a system can operate on its own according to internal rules; it does not imply that the system understands the context of its actions, the goals of its users, or the ethical weight of its decisions.

The proposed shift is from 'Autonomous Vehicles' (AuVs) to 'Agentic Vehicles' (AgVs). It’s a subtle but profound distinction. Agency implies the capacity to do more than just follow a pre-programmed route; it suggests a system that can adapt its goals when interacting with its environment. I think this reframing is crucial. An autonomous vehicle might stop for an obstacle, but an agentic vehicle could understand a passenger is having a heart attack, cancel its original destination, and reroute to the nearest hospital, all while notifying emergency services. That is a fundamentally different class of machine.

This transition has massive implications for product and systems design. The challenge evolves from a purely technical one of perfecting perception and control to a socio-technical one of designing a collaborative partner. How do we design a car that can negotiate with city infrastructure to ease traffic flow or communicate its intentions to a pedestrian in a way that builds trust? The paper introduces a framework for 'levels of agency' that runs parallel to the familiar levels of automation, focusing on capabilities like dialogue, social coordination, and even self-awareness, such as a vehicle diagnosing its own need for repair and scheduling an appointment.

It’s less about engineering a perfect, isolated machine and more about architecting a participant in a complex, human-centric system. We are moving from designing vehicles to designing mobile agents that must coexist and collaborate within the messy reality of our cities and our lives.