Why Joanne Keeps Returning to Automation Stories

Paris Marx is joined by Joanne McNeil to discuss the proliferation of delivery bots and robotaxis and how they recycle disproven claims about how technology will improve transportation.

Joanne McNeil is a freelance writer and the author of Wrong Way and Lurking: How a Person Became a User.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Joanne wrote about delivery bots and robotaxis for the New York Review of Architecture.

• She’s doing an event in Los Angeles discussing social media on November 1.

• Uber’s driverless car killed a pedestrian, and the company scapegoated the backup driver.

• Sleep Dealer is a sci-fi movie by Alex Rivera.

• A GM Cruise self-driving car hit a pedestrian and dragged them 20 feet before stopping.

• Even Chuck E. Cheese is getting into the ghost kitchen business.