Autonorama - by Peter Norton (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The danger of a driverless future built on false promises

"The foundation has been laid for fully autonomous," Elon Musk announced in 2016, when he assured the world that Tesla would have a driverless fleet on the road in 2017. "It's twice as safe as a human, maybe better." Promises of technofuturistic driving utopias have been ubiquitous wherever tech companies and carmakers meet.

In Autonorama, technology historian Peter Norton argues that driverless cars cannot be the safe, sustainable, and inclusive "mobility solutions" that tech companies and automakers are promising us. The salesmanship behind the driverless future is distracting us from investing in better ways to get around that we can implement now. Unlike autonomous vehicles, these alternatives are inexpensive, safe, sustainable, and inclusive.

Norton takes the reader on an engaging ride--from the GM Futurama exhibit to "smart" highways and vehicles--to show how we are once again being sold car dependency in the guise of mobility. He argues that we cannot see what tech companies are selling us except in the light of history. With driverless cars, we're promised that new technology will solve the problems that car dependency gave us: Zero crashes! Zero emissions! Zero congestion! But these are the same promises that have kept us on a treadmill of car dependency for eighty years.

Now with a new preface and afterword by the author, Autonorama is hopeful, advocating for wise, proven, humane mobility that we can invest in now, without waiting for technology that is forever just out of reach. Before intelligent systems, data, and technology can serve us, Norton suggests, we need wisdom. Rachel Carson warned us that when we seek technological solutions instead of ecological balance, we can make our problems worse. With this wisdom, Norton contends, we can meet our mobility needs with what we have right now.

Review Quotes

"[Norton's] contention that the public is being sold a bill of goods that further reinforces car dependency and freedom against alternative options that are more environmentally and socially friendly creates a thought-provoking analysis of the underlying influences of car company business interests on future choices."-- "Donovan's Literary Services"

"[Norton] concludes that the only way to end the vices caused by automobile dependency is to reduce automobile dependency itself--to rebuild public transit and facilitate walking and cycling, so that Americans have the same level of transportation choice as Europeans and Asians."-- "Planetizen"

"From my own experience with this text in the classroom, the book was very well-received by undergraduates interested in transportation planning and I am certain the book would make a fine addition to a graduate student's reading list. The author's broader message is necessary for transportation planning practitioners and our colleagues within motordom."-- "Journal of Planning Education and Research"

"Offering iconoclastic arguments that are well worth our attention, Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving by Professor Peter Norton is especially and unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library Automotive History and Contemporary Social Issues collections."-- "Midwest Book Review"

"Provocative, forcing AV proponents to explain why things will be different this time around after the failed promises of the past 80 years, and whether the answer to the urban transportation problem can actually be more, albeit smarter, automobiles."-- "Journal of Urban Affairs"

"This is a bracing challenge to the dogma of autonomous vehicle enthusiasts and a clarion call for more varied and humane mobility solutions."-- "Booklist"

"Two decades into the 21st-century, we should heed Norton's warnings about Autonorama, turn our backs on car culture, and begin the rewarding task of reclaiming urban space for efficient public transit, safe cycling, and healthy and stress-free walking."-- "Resilience"

About the Author

Peter Norton is associate professor of history in the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City.