Crawford reiterates Jane Jacobs's point that the best urban interactions are those that emerge spontaneously rather than those that are imposed by a planner from the top down. While Jacobs's point was that the interactions that emerged organically were smarter, Crawford's point is that these interactions are also more satisfying to participate in because they require agency, and the sense of agency is intoxicating. To feel agency is to feel human. To calculate is to feel human. To survive is to feel human, and one cannot survive if one has eliminated all the risks of death. Indeed, there can be no immortality without that which is mortal.
Crawford frames the autonomous car infrastructure as an operating system for a city. This framing is rather explicit about the role intended for motorist in this scheme. It is to be operated upon, purportedly for the motorist's own good. Crawford is not convinced. Design fads come and go. The lack of competition blunts innovation in the designer's room at the top. The lack of democratic oversight by zombified motorists at the bottom risks the future in which the operating system does not represent the interests of anyone in particular.
Crawford may have a point. In his speech in parliament from the 9 of September 2022, Boris Johnson credits the spirit that drove the Queen to drive her own car for the survival and flourishing of the British monarchy: "She drove herself in her own car with no detectives and no bodyguard, bouncing at alarming speed over the Scottish landscape to the total amazement of the ramblers and the tourists we encountered. And it is that indomitable spirit with which she created the modern constitutional monarchy." Hitching a ride in an Uber or boarding a ride in an amusement park, irrespective of whether the ride carries the badge of Disney or Porsche, just would not have cut it.
