Automation, communication, and surveillance in the São Paulo subway

Abstract

The opening of Line 4-Amarela brought several innovations to the São Paulo subway,, at both technological and organizational levels. Among them, the most outstanding is the introduction of fully automated trains, which are operated by the onboard computer under the supervision of a central control room. In this text, I show how this innovation affects the sociotechnical environment of Line 4, and explore one of its most noticeable consequences: the investment on surveillance. Relying on ethnographic work, I argue that the aspects of monitoring procedures and remote piloting are emphasized in the line operation, and explore the consequences for the communicative circuits involving agents, riders, and machines.