The End of Driving

Rise of immobility (2042)

"This box, donated to this museum by the municipality of Amsterdam, symbolises the decline of human mobility over the last 30 years. Since the 2020s, human labour declined drastically, due to robotization and digitalization. In 2031, in response to the dissatisfaction of millions, the Dutch government introduced a universal basic income (UBI). Meanwhile, the increasing advancement of Virtual Reality technology allowed people to experience practically everything from their living room chair. As these developments progressed, for the first time in history, the Dutch became less mobile.

This downfall of mobility resulted in many marginally used roads and highways.  In the early 2040s, the remaining human driven-vehicles posed a serious safety threat due to numerous traffic accidents between human driven-vehicles and densely driving autonomous vehicles (AVs). The EU started negotiations on banning human driven cars altogether. However, this was a very time-consuming process. With an exponential increase in road accidents, the Dutch government aimed to take prompt measures, by starting a campaign to secure road safety. For six months, people had the chance to hand in their driver’s licenses for a refund of 2000 euros, equivalent to the average costs people spent on their driving lessons. The box displayed here is one of many which were installed in city halls throughout the country.

Source: donated by the Municipality of Amsterdam

Curated by: Dylan Ahern, Eloisa Vittoria Menguzzo, Eva Koolbergen & Pam Wijk."

Text from the Mobility Museum 2050