Word.ws English Dictionary

autonowashing

autonowashing noun: the practice of making unverified or misleading claims which misrepresent the appropriate level of human supervision required by a partially or semi-autonomous product, service, or technology.

Noun

autonowashing (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory) The practice of making unverified or misleading claims which misrepresent the appropriate level of human supervision required by a partially or semi-autonomous product, service, or technology.
    • Hence, the case for the use of the term "autonowashing" to describe the gap in the presentation of automation and the actual system capabilities is put forth. This paper presents case studies and discusses key issues in autonowashing, a term/concept that influences or relates to public perceptions...2019 October 18, Liza Dixon, “Autonowashing: The Greenwashing of Vehicle Automation”, in ResearchGate, →DOI
    • [Dixon] cites the use of vague language and the failure to prove claims as being characteristics of autonowashing, and she highlights the media’s culpability in relation to its ‘utopian’ reporting and exaggeration of the level of autonomy. Indeed, there are numerous examples of articles whose...2020, Christian Wolmar, “The Long Journey of the Driverless Car”, in IntechOpen, →DOI, retrieved 31 Jan 2021

Origin of autonowashing

From autonomous + -wash + -ing.

Questions about autonowashing

What does autonowashing mean?
Autonowashing means the practice of making unverified or misleading claims which misrepresent the appropriate level of human supervision required by a partially or semi-autonomous product, service, or technology.
What part of speech is autonowashing?
Autonowashing is a noun.

Words near autonowashing in the dictionary

  1. Autonomus
  2. autonomy
  3. autonormalization
  4. autonosode
  5. autonosodes
  6. autonowashing
  7. autons
  8. autonumber
  9. autonumbered
  10. autonumbering
  11. autonumbers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: autonowashing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “autonowashing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/autonowashing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.