First published 2020
Matthew Crawford examines what we lose when machines replace human drivers. The philosopher-mechanic who wrote Shop Class as Soulcraft turns his attention to the road, where tech companies push us toward automated vehicles and passive consumption. Crawford argues that driving represents one of our last spaces for skill, risk, and genuine freedom. He draws from his decade restoring a vintage Volkswagen and visits to car enthusiasts across America. The book connects driving to larger questions about surveillance capitalism, bureaucratic control, and whether ordinary people can maintain competence in an automated world. Crawford shows how our everyday road skills matter, how folk engineering creates real value, and why occasional fear serves human development. This exploration of automotive culture becomes a defense of human agency against corporate visions of frictionless futures.
Genres: philosophy, american, non-fiction, technology, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: defense-of-human-agency, folk-engineering
1 pages · Audio CD · HarperCollins B and Blackstone Publishing