A new short film, Road Rage, casts a murderous autonomous car as the bad guy, tapping into our deepest fears about AI on the road.

The film follows Joa, a ridehail driver, as he gets into a tense chase with a self-driving car named Roboride, which decides to kill him after a minor road-rage incident. Director Romain Thomassin explains that the project aims to explore the tension between human instinct and artificial intelligence.

Thomassin highlights the anxieties surrounding robotaxis, including job displacement, surveillance and the potential for these vehicles to become a dystopian force. He notes that autonomous cars are already being treated like adversaries on the streets of San Francisco, with people immobilizing them and setting them on fire.

Despite these concerns, Thomassin hopes that the film will inspire viewers to embrace human creativity and unpredictability in the face of machine logic. He says, “Respect your madness. Be a little mad and creative in your way of doing things, and you will be able to rise against the machines.”