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"Auto"-Exploitation: A Marxist Examination Of Self-Driving Cars, Parker Duvall

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In this thesis, I argue that a neo-Marxist critical theory perspective on self-driving cars shifts critical conversations from risks and benefits to concerns about the commodification of free time necessary for our human experience of autonomy. First, I outline that neo-Marxist perspective by charting the different types of power exercised by a capitalist in order to increase their surplus. I then analyze Karl Marx's conception of time in economic exchange to show that, under capitalism, power is exercised over labor through the commodification of workers' free time. I then introduced Michel Foucault's concept of biopower to transition to the commodification …