And in California, the promise of Silicon Valley is turning into a pipe dream
On August 7, San Francisco taxi drivers demonstrated against plans to allow robo-taxi service in the city. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
California Dream Retreat (6/4) – Enveloping themselves with the best of intentions, computer geniuses claim to put innovation at the service of a better world. But even in the cradle of the digital revolution, faith in the inevitable march of progress is eroding.
The embodiment of modernity, California represents an enchanted world in which one enjoys vast natural resources and endless technological advances. The dream began to crack. Natural disasters, the choked suburbs, the housing crisis, gluttonous farming, the mechanization of Hollywood, the Orwellian drift of Silicon Valley… From Los Angeles to San Francisco, from Sacramento to the Central Valley, Le Figaro explores this crisis, the crisis of our modernity. . .
Special Envoy to Silicon Valley
In the evening mist covering San Francisco Heights, a large electric vehicle approaches a crossroads in Russian Hill. Like a conscientious driving school, it stops long at a deserted intersection, blinks, and disappears silently down a sloping street. The car is completely empty. Nobody drives. The large lamps on either side of the bonnet and roof-mounted box contain sensors that allow them to automatically evolve…
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