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Researchers believe the rise of autonomous vehicles (AVs) may mean a rise in car sex, Fast Company reports. A paper published in the Annals of Tourism Research states that various aspects of roadside tourism may change with the increased use of AVs—including eating, sleeping, and more intimate activities. “People will be sleeping in their vehicles, which has implications for roadside hotels. And people may be eating in vehicles that function as restaurant pods,” Scott Cohen, deputy director of research of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Surrey, told the magazine. “That led us to think, besides sleeping, what other things will people do in cars when free from the task of driving? And you can see that in the long association of automobiles and sex that’s represented in just about every coming-of-age movie. It’s not a big leap.”
The study also projected there might be a change in prostitution as AVs become more mainstream, with Cohen claiming it’s “not impossible or that far-fetched to imagine the red light district on the move.” Cohen said AV sex would become commonplace in the 2040s, and predicted that AV manufacturers would produce cars designed with sex in mind. “Of course sex sells,” he said, “and there’s likely to be a capitalization on this in terms of commercial interest.”