How tech-industry logic reshapes mobility: EV adoption as platform capitalism’s next frontier
Original framing: “Digital natives are buying electric cars as if they were smartphones” — The Conversation - Global
The 'smartphone on wheels' framing is a *Hermes-like* bait-and-switch—luring consumers with the promise of convenience while binding them to a *subscription economy* where the car is just the hook. Like *Anansi’s* spider, the tech-automotive alliance weaves a web of 'personalization' (e.g., *Tesla’s* over-the-air updates) that actually *centralizes control*, turning drivers into *data serfs*. A *Coyote* reading might ask: *What if the 'next big thing' in mobility isn’t an EV, but a return to the bike—or worse, a corporate-owned drone taxi fleet that renders streets obsolete?* The trickster here isn’t the consumer; it’s the *system* that sells 'freedom' while building the cage.
The 'digital native' EV narrative is a *Trojan horse* for platform capitalism, repackaging car dependency as 'innovation' while obscuring its *colonial, extractive, and authoritarian* dimensions.
The convergence of automotive, tech, and energy monopolies—backed by venture capital and state subsidies—is recasting mobility as another *utility to be optimized for profit*, not sustainability. Historical patterns (from horse carriages to highways) and Indigenous resistance (e.g., Mapuche blockades) reveal that this transition isn’t inevitable but *politically constructed*, with outcomes determined by who controls the infrastructure, data, and supply chains. The solution lies not in *more EVs* but in *systemic alternatives*: public ownership, Indigenous-led resource governance, and cultural reimagining of mobility as *shared, slow, and sovereign*—not a corporate platform. The trickster here is the system itself, selling 'freedom' while building the cage, and the only way out is to *name the game* and play it differently.