Plan #1:

Should self-driving cars be sold on the market (if successfully created)?

For this plan my end goal would be to create a venn diagram of the companies working on self-driving cars and the pros, cons and goals they each have and/or share. My steps toward making this chart accurate and detailed enough would be to do a lot of online research, and many sketches of how large, small, integrated and intertwined the diagrams will be. The online research will include background research and project outcomes for the following companies: Google, MIT, Uber, and Tesla (and maybe more once I get further into my research). To accurately note down and keep track of all my data I will list the benefits, dangers, arguments, developments, plans, money, goals and growth of the projects in each category (categories being the companies). Once I have my list for each category I will cut up and re assemble the items into groups of common interest among the companies or specific categories. Then I will sketch up ideas of how I would like the end result to look like, color use etc. and what materials I would use, maybe bristol board paper. For the research to be thorough I want to give myself enough time, but not rush on the presentation, I want the research (lists) done by 27th of April, have a final sketch of my final project look by May 4th, and fully completed by May 11th.

Plan #2 – Chosen Idea:

Should self-driving cars be sold on the market (if successfully created)?

For my second plan my end result would be a visual drawing of a utopia and a dystopia of the possibility of self-driving cars being accessible to humans, based on online research and human interviews of the pros, cons and thoughts on the subject. To get all my information, I will conduct a thorough investigation on online websites about the various perspectives on the matter, including companies working on SDC models. I will also interview humans of New York by asking them various questions like: would you want a self-driving car? If yes, why so? If not why so? Would it give you more time to do your own things or limit your freedom? I am surrounded by many humans everyday, to get my interviews I will ask variety of people I walk pass: students, teachers, employees etc. to get a variety of answers. Once I will get all my information and different view points, I will separate the comments into common groups (for it or against it) and from there I will sketch out the emotions, reasoning behind the emotions, attributes to a life with SDC etc. on paper. Once I finalize on two (a utopia and a dystopia) sketches for my final, I will re-create that sketch in photoshop and create a high resolution drawing of all the research to capture the feelings people have about this possible future product. For this plan I think drawing would take a bit longer than the research, as I can ask many people in a few days (easily accessible to all range of people), the research would be completed by 20th or 23rd of April, sketch of final to be done by 27th or 30th of May, and the final to be completed by the 11th of May.

Questions for Shana:

Will this fill the criteria for different sources for research?

Do I need to find a librarian? (I am not too clear about this area)

Does the thesis question fit with the project I will create? And/or is it a sufficient idea/correct question?

Or should my question be more specific like: what would the two extreme futures look like for slef driving cars?