Robotaxis Are the Next Dystopian Villain (Bloomberg on Autokill)

[PAYWALLED — summary from preview, checked 2026-09-15]

Author: David Dudley, Bloomberg CityLab (Weekend) URL: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-28/self-driving-cars-are-the-villain-in-sam-schwartz-s-novel-autokill Published: August 28, 2026 One-line: Sam Schwartz, the former New York City traffic commissioner credited with coining “gridlock,” has written Autokill, a thriller that makes self-driving cars the villain and dramatizes the real risks they pose to cities.

What is reachable

Written from the headline, dek and the two opening paragraphs visible on bloomberg.com in Chrome on 2026-09-15. The rest is paywalled. The full article was not read or archived.

• Premise (dek): Schwartz, the urban planner behind the term “gridlock,” has written a thriller about autonomous vehicles and the real-world risks they pose to cities.
• Lifelong fan. Schwartz, now 78, first rode an “autonomous vehicle” as a teenager at the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens, on Ford’s Magic Skyway and GM’s Futurama, and loved it.
• Impressed by Waymo, frustrated by it too. Sampling Waymo robotaxis in San Francisco, he was struck by how smoothly they rode but annoyed by their limits. One refused to drop him and his disabled wife at their hotel and left them blocks away, and a remote attendant told him to take an Uber. Bloomberg notes Waymo told Business Insider the car was kept out of the area because of nearby protest activity.
• The framing: a veteran traffic engineer who likes the technology but worries about what it does to streets and city life.

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Connections

• Autokill — the novel (anti-library page).
• Sam Schwartz — author of the novel; former NYC traffic commissioner.
• Waymo and Autonomous Vehicles — the technology cast as villain.
• New York City and Urban Planning — Schwartz’s career and the city-scale risks at issue.