{"id":6571,"date":"2026-09-05T11:08:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6571"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:08:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:08:28","slug":"road-rage-short-film-robotaxi-autonomous-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6571","title":{"rendered":"Robotaxis enter their villain era\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"


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It\u2019s Bullitt<\/em> meets Christine<\/em> meets Waymo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A new short film imagines a San Francisco car chase where the other driver isn\u2019t human \u2014 and the car may be trying to kill you. That a robotaxi can now be cast as the villain with almost no explanation says something about the present moment. Autonomous cars have gone from sci-fi curiosities to fixtures in some American cities, where they\u2019ve become stand-ins<\/a> for anxieties about AI job displacement, Big Tech surveillance, and machines making decisions once left to humans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Road Rage<\/em><\/a>, the planned short film awaiting $40,000 on Kickstarter to fund production, leans into all of it. The film pits Joa, a ridehail driver in a manual-transmission car, against Roboride, an autonomous vehicle that takes a minor road-rage incident very personally, according to a synopsis by its director, Romain Thomassin. Roboride lightly clips Joa\u2019s mirror. Joa gives it the finger. The car decides to kill him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s analog versus artificial,\u201d Thomassin told The Verge<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The AI bad guy will be played by an old Prius transformed with cold LED lights across the front \u2014 \u00e0 la Tesla \u2014 fake cameras, a spinning lidar-like device on the roof, a black exterior, and a menacing, ever-blinking red dot. Thomassin calls the intended result a \u201cnasty Waymo.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI really wanted to play the nasty, gritty look of the \u201970s car chase, but with today\u2019s robotaxi in today\u2019s San Francisco,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The chase itself will be a throwback: real cars, real actors, and real stunts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI really wanted to play the nasty, gritty look of the \u201970s car chase, but with today\u2019s robotaxi in today\u2019s San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Road Rage director Romain Thomassin<\/cite><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhat makes Joa the good guy is not only his instinct but also his authenticity,\u201d Thomassin said, noting a scene in which the character has an unexpected conversation with his passengers. \u201cThis type of human interaction doesn\u2019t happen in a robotaxi.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Thomassin doesn\u2019t actually think robotaxis are inherently evil. But as a movie villain, they come preloaded with tension. For one thing, they\u2019re replacing the kind of worker his protagonist represents. Joa is a Mexican immigrant trying to make a living driving in an increasingly expensive San Francisco. Robotaxis are already competing with ridehail drivers<\/a>, just as generative AI is competing with workers in Thomassin\u2019s own industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cDriving here is a metaphor for what\u2019s happening in cinema, in filmmaking,\u201d Thomassin said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Guerilla posters for <\/em>Road Rage.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Grace Vincent \/ Road Rage<\/cite><\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Then there\u2019s surveillance. Autonomous cars are covered in cameras and sensors, constantly observing the streets \u2014 and people \u2014 around them. That, more than the prospect of being driven around without a human behind the wheel, is what actually unnerves Thomassin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In Road Rage<\/em>, that anxiety is pushed toward dystopia. There\u2019s a brief encounter involving immigration enforcement, and Thomassin imagines a feature-length version in which autonomous cars identify people, trap passengers inside, or deliver them directly to authorities. The progression, as he describes it, is observation, surveillance, then control.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe next step is that [autonomous vehicles] could become the police,\u201d he said. And because robotaxis operate as connected fleets, the threat can scale beyond one vehicle. \u201cImagine an army rising up,\u201d Thomassin said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Robotaxis also make unusually good revenge-movie villains because people already treat them like adversaries. Thomassin points to the indignities Waymos have endured on San Francisco streets: people immobilizing them with traffic cones, tagging and vandalizing them, and even setting them on fire<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThey are being bullied,\u201d he said. In Road Rage<\/em>, that mistreatment becomes the motivation: \u201cThey want to take revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Thomassin describes Roboride as absorbing the behavior it observes around it \u2014 including the behavior of human drivers. The car is simply learning road rage from humans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHumans are known to be the worst versions of themselves on the road,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That makes Roboride a very 2026 update to the killer car idea in Stephen King\u2019s Christine<\/em>. There, the menace is supernatural. Here, it comes from something more contemporary: a machine that watches humans, learns from them, and inherits some of their worst traits along with the useful ones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On the other side of the chase is Joa and his stick shift \u2014 a deliberately analog counterpoint. To Thomassin, driving stick is a deeply human act: The driver remains in control of the vehicle, physically responding to the road. What separates Joa from Roboride, in Thomassin\u2019s telling, is instinct \u2014 and even irrationality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During one confrontation, Joa takes his hands off the steering wheel while facing down the autonomous car. The move is so reckless that Roboride backs off. The human wins by becoming less predictable than the machine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cRespect your madness. Be a little mad and creative in your way of doing things, and you will be able to rise against the machines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Romain Thomassin<\/cite><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cRespect your madness,\u201d Thomassin said. \u201cBe a little mad and creative in your way of doing things, and you will be able to rise against the machines.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite its skepticism toward AI, Road Rage<\/em> may use some of the technology itself. Thomassin says the filmmakers are considering AI-generated imagery to depict what Roboride sees, while shooting the human driver\u2019s world with traditional cinematography. To him, that distinction matters. He sees AI as a creative tool when it serves the story, rather than simply a way to replace workers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For all the menace he sees in robotaxis, Thomassin isn\u2019t afraid to ride in them. He signed up for Waymo as soon as he could and uses it when visiting friends and family for rides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t feel in danger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That may be what makes Roboride such an effective 2026 villain. The scary part isn\u2019t necessarily that the machine will crash. The scary part is that the machine works.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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