At the end of the road: Total safety

Presentations that promote the development of self-driving cars often begin with what in Michel Foucault’s words could be called a “theatre of pain” (Foucault 2012: 42). While photos show demolished school buses and cars torn in half, the presenter intersperses these drastic images with figures: 1.2 million people are killed on the roads every year, making road accidents the leading cause of death for 15- to 29-year-olds worldwide (WHO 2015: 2). Automated driving systems are to put an end to end this tragedy: humans must hand over control of the vehicle to learning algorithms that are superior to human skills and are never tired, distracted or drunk.