Review of Self Driver – cabbie who signs up for bad software offers Travis Bickle on the gig economy | Video

CAnadian filmmaker Michael Pierro makes his appearance with a low-to-no-budget approach, Travis Bickle’s contemporary challenges which, although flawed and in need of script expansion, add a relevant commentary on the gig economy and the Waymo-isation of the service industry.

Nathaniel Chadwick has an everyman role as a Toronto Uber driver, asleep at the wheel, desperate to get his girlfriend and baby home, avoiding calls from landlords, tired and taken advantage of by rude customers who throw him in his car. They would prefer to be paid by the program daily rather than weekly, but that would mean upgrading to a higher “platinum” driver, paying non-refundable membership fees that would give them first in line for jobs and other dubious benefits. They can’t afford it, according to the fun facts of the Uber world.

Then a mysterious and sophisticated client gives him his card: would he like to work for a new type of software operator? There are probably thousands of dollars a night in there for him, but he’s not doing the interviewing. Our harmless, shy hero signs up and immediately realizes that this is some kind of illegal mail service; what sounds even worse and oppressive is that the new app installed on his phone doesn’t give names or addresses or maps, just a few empty instructions: “go straight”, “turn left” and withdraw money for minor violations.

What he’s expected to do is very surprising – especially when the program tells him to get out of the driver’s seat and get in the back with a customer – although the film’s violence is at its most silly and unpleasant. A diversionary effort to somehow reduce filmmaking.