The growing presence of autonomous vehicles in urban environments is officially entering pop culture as a source of cinematic dread. A new short film project titled «Road Rage» is turning the ubiquitous robotaxi into a murderous villain, tapping into contemporary anxieties surrounding artificial intelligence and automation.
The film follows a manual-transmission ridehail driver in San Francisco who incurs the wrath of an autonomous vehicle after a minor traffic altercation. By casting the machine as a relentless pursuer, the project addresses broader societal concerns, including job displacement for human drivers, pervasive surveillance through onboard sensors, and the psychological distance of machine-driven infrastructure.
While capturing the gritty aesthetic of 1970s car chase thrillers, the production uses the autonomous vehicle as a metaphor for modern technological fears. The director notes that rather than being inherently evil, the fictional car simply mirrors the worst aggressive behaviors observed among human drivers.
- New short film ‘Road Rage’ casts autonomous vehicles as menacing movie villains
- The project highlights societal anxieties regarding AI surveillance and job displacement
- The plot features a high-stakes chase between an analog human driver and an AI car
- The film draws on real-world friction and tensions between citizens and robotaxis
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