ABSTRACT

In the spring of 2004, the automobile manufacturer Daimler Chrysler ran an advertising campaign in the national newspapers to promote its latest design feature, computerized information systems. The ad featured a computer-animated urban centre with high-rise buildings and streets with pedestrian crossings covering their entire length. A little girl is shown on the curb of one of these streets, about to cross it on her way to school. Superimposed on this image is a photo of her mother at home, looking on reassured. The caption reads ‘Because you cannot be everywhere at the same time’. Since all of the streets in this imaginary city have been turned into pedestrian crossings, the image implies that children will always be safe from the threat posed by any oncoming car. The message that Daimler Chrysler wants to convey is that their new, state-of-the-art onboard information system can assist car drivers in reacting properly to unexpected situations, such as when a child suddenly walks out into traffic, thereby rendering city streets safer (Beckmann 2004). In this example, the problem of crossing passages, discussed in the previous chapter, is not solved in the material design of infrastructure, or in the rules of the road, but by making the car itself more ‘intelligent’. In Daimler Chrysler’s vision of an ‘accident-free driving’ world, built-in information systems and sensors are able to help drivers get through bumper-to-bumper traffic, warn them of impending traffic jams ‘well before the long chain of brake lights becomes visible’ and even predict when a car will change lanes to pass another.1 These information and communication technologies enable drivers to look ahead in time, thereby increasing their reaction times and enabling them to anticipate contingencies in a new way. If we are to believe car manufacturers such as Daimler Chrysler, the future in automobile design belongs to smart cars as well as intelligent infrastructures.2