Overview

Silicon Valley wants us to believe that technology will revolutionize our cities and the ways we move around. Autonomous vehicles will make us safer, greener, and more efficient. On-demand services like Uber and Lyft will eliminate car ownership. Micromobility devices like electric scooters will be at every corner, and drones will deliver goods and services. Meanwhile visionaries like Elon Musk promise to eliminate congestion with tunnels, and Uber help with flying cars. The future of transport is frictionless, sustainable, and according to Paris Marx, a threat to our ideas of what a society should be. Road to Nowhere exposes the problems with tech’s visions of the future and argues that we cannot allow ourselves to be continually distracted by technological fantasies that delay the collective solutions we already know are effective. Technological solutions to social problems and the people who propose them must be challenged if we are to build cities and transportation systems which serve the public good. In response, Paris Marx offers a vision for a more collective way of organizing transportation systems which considers the needs of poor, marginalized, and vulnerable peoples. The book also argues that rethinking mobility can be the first step in a broader reimagining of how we organize our social, economic, and political systems to serve the many, not the few.

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9781839765889

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Reviews

The last decade has been a trainwreck for Silicon Valley's dreams of mobility. Paris Marx's invaluable new book explains how and why big tech's utopian transit projects crashed and burned, why these disasters will keep finding funding if they are not opposed, and what the alternative might look like. The path to a better, more equitable future of transit begins with the Road to Nowhere. -Brian Merchant, author of The One Device Lively summary of the ways Big Tech has distracted us from the urgent task of making our cities work for everyone. -Jarrett Walker, author of Human Transit An astute and engaging critique of Silicon Valley's visions for transportation, Marx highlights the problems of technology being driven by the needs of capital and crafts a compelling vision of a world where technology is instead used to deliver social good. -Wendy Liu, author of Abolish Silicon Valley

The last decade has been a trainwreck for Silicon Valley's dreams of mobility. Paris Marx's invaluable new book explains how and why big tech's utopian transit projects crashed and burned, why these disasters will keep finding funding if they are not opposed, and what the alternative might look like. The path to a better, more equitable future of transit begins with the Road to Nowhere. -- Brian Merchant, author of <i>The One Device</i> A lively summary of the ways Big Tech has distracted us from the urgent task of making our cities work for everyone. -- Jarrett Walker, author of <i>Human Transit</i> An astute and engaging critique of Silicon Valley's visions for transportation, Marx highlights the problems of technology being driven by the needs of capital and crafts a compelling vision of a world where technology is instead used to deliver social good -- Wendy Liu, author of <i>Abolish Silicon Valley</i> Draws a compelling picture of the evolution of the Western vision of mobility. -- Konrad Bleyer-Simon * Green European Journal * Road to Nowhere pulls the mind of the reader towards the myriad of possibilities that come into view if we think of our world without the car...a useful compendium not just of the follies of Silicon Valley in respect of transportation, but also the price we pay when these costs are socialised. -- Lizzie O'Shea * Overland *

The last decade has been a trainwreck for Silicon Valley's dreams of mobility. Paris Marx's invaluable new book explains how and why big tech's utopian transit projects crashed and burned, why these disasters will keep finding funding if they are not opposed, and what the alternative might look like. The path to a better, more equitable future of transit begins with the Road to Nowhere. -Brian Merchant, author of The One Device

Author Information

Paris Marx is a technology writer. They have written frequently in, amongst others, NBC News, CBC News, Jacobin, Tribune, and OneZero, and speak internationally on the future of transport. They are also a PhD student at the University of Auckland and the host of the critical technology podcast 'Tech Won't Save Us'.

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