Transport Apps Promised to Eliminate Friction. But at What Cost?

In the vision of the "frictionless" city that is held by many in tech, virtually every city service, human interaction, and consumer experience is to be mediated by an app or digital service that not only cuts out the need to deal directly with another human but places technology at the center The decisions of venture capitalists to fund companies that are changing the way we live should not be seen as neutral actions. They are pushing visions of the future that benefit themselves by funding the yearslong efforts of companies to dominate their sectors and lobby to change regulatory structures in their favor. Their ideas try to extend it rather than challenge it.

After more than a decade of being flooded with idealized visions of technologically enhanced futures whose benefits have not been shared in the way their promoter promised, we should consider what kinds of futures they are more likely to create. The world being created is more segregation based on income, hostile to pedestrians, and uses unaccountable technological systems to control more aspects of our lives.

The Gated Greenwashed City was created by the man.

Setting aside his plans for space colonization is one of the main aspects of Musk's vision. There is an electric personal vehicle. Most of the problems that accompany an auto-oriented transportation system should be ignored by Musk because he believes in "individualized transport." His vision is more than just a preference for cars. Musk unveiled the Cybertruck, a vehicle that took styling cues from science fiction and was designed to survive brute force attacks. The windows of the vehicle are supposed to be bulletproof, but they are not. The decision to build such features into an incredibly large vehicle likely says something about the personal fears that undergird Musk's ideas for the future.

The second part of Musk's vision is the use of solar panels. Musk advocated the idea of homeowners generating their own electricity through solar roofs and array that could be used to charge their electric cars, fill up their in- home batteries, and potentially even earn them a profit by feeding into the grid. The third and final piece of the puzzle is the Boring Company's imagined system of tunnels that turned out to be little more than narrow underground roads for expensive cars with self-driving systems. Musk preferred the sprawl of single- family homes over dense, transit oriented development.

Musk promotes a vision for a green future that addresses the climate crisis and many other issues. The trajectory of our capitalist society shows a different kind of urban future. Tech billionaire wealth and billionaires' desire to close themselves off from the rest of society are likely to be reinforced by these technologies.

The first of Musk's proposed tunnels was designed to make it easier for him to get to and from work. Rather than a network of tunnels for the average person, such a system could be used to connect only the places that the rich frequent: their gated communities, private airport terminals, and other exclusive areas of the city.