Analysis: The Johhnycab Identity We first meet Johhnycab as Douglas Quaid regains consciousness after his incident at Rekall, when he finds himself riding in one of the film’s ubiquitous self-driving taxis (Figure 1.1). Right away we start to get a sense of the personality and character the Johnnycab brand possesses, and why I think it’s so easy for them to get away with using a simple logotype (Figure 1.2). With Johnny’s weird looks and the vehicle’s clown car appearance (Figure 1.3), I mean really, who needs an eye-catching, memorable logo when your car and driver look like these things? As strange as they are, you couldn’t possibly miss them on the streets or mistake them for anything else.
This was up on YouTube before and I downloaded it to my computer, and now I can't find the one originally uploaded. I forgot which account originally. Back in 2012 Total Recall was rebooted with a modern, sparkly remake that was big on FX if a little lacking in depth. You may not remember (ahem) this feature we ran rounding up our top 10 scenes.
As for the logotype, it isn’t custom in any way—just Eurostile Bold Extended set in all caps. It’s simple but it works, and the placement on the vehicles is smart, putting it where passengers (and the movie’s audience) will always see it, as they approach and enter the side doors of the cab. Beyond the logotype and the unforgettable character of the vehicle and driver, Johnnycab successfully owns their visual identity’s blue, yellow and black colors.
Consistently applied inside and out, Johnny is decked out in all blue, with yellow and black checkers on his cap, while the car is also predominantly blue, with yellow and black stripes. And it’s nice that they went for something a little different than the strictly yellow and black combo we are used to seeing with present day taxi services. I also find the additional choice of blue interesting given their service’s twist on the taxi—blue being a color that communicates security and trust, which is something you’d want to feel when climbing into a vehicle you have no control over, that is being driven by an animatronic machine intelligence that isn’t understanding half of what you say to it. Disclaimers This research is the product of one person, working with whatever limited resources, brainpower and free time I have available, and there’s always a chance that I could have missed some piece of information, big or small, about a given identity or source I’m surveying. Each entry is a work in progress, that I could return to at later times and update with new info and discoveries. With all that in mind, if you have something to add or share, I’d love to hear from you. Especially if you’re someone that worked on something featured here!
Inquiries and submissions should be directed to. All entries under the Research portion of this site are intended for educational purposes, forming a shared resource documenting logos and visual identity systems in science fiction, that can be used for discussion and review among the professional design community and sci-fi fans. All film, television, and video game screenshots or stills featured on this page, and in the index thumbnail leading to it, are property of their production studios and are used on the site under laws. All images of books, comics, or other works covered are the property of their respective copyright holders, with those works reproduced on the site under Fair Use laws.
And those freelance drivers who have been Ubering the regular old-fashioned cabbies? They are about to be Ubered themselves.
And it's only a matter of years, not decades. Not just taxis Of course, it's about more than taxis. Because once humans no longer drive cabs, I don't give the rest of us human drivers long. Your children may never have to learn to turn a steering wheel. Considering the mess on Toronto's roads this week, all I can say is, good riddance. I know there will be screams of protest.
I like driving as much as the next person, the feel of all that power at your finger and toe-tips. For those of us who still drive stick shifts, there is the sensation of merging human and machine that thrills a certain kind of personality. For the young, there's the feeling of risk and cutting it close. But with two powerful and vigorous companies, Google and Uber, competing for the prize, each backed by piles of cash, I'm afraid the die is cast. The first question, whether it's possible, has now been pretty well decided. Sci-fi staple Driverless cars have been a staple of science fiction for decades, including that great scene from the Philip K. Dick-inspired movie Total Recall, where a chatty robot JohnnyCab tries to take Arnold Schwarzenegger's character for a ride.
But like other technologies whose time has come, driverless cars have gone over the last decade from science fiction to here and now. Google forecasts its driverless vehicles will be available to the public in two to five years. Audi has been testing an A8 on Florida roads that will be available by 2017.
It will ',' said Stefan Moser, Audi head of product and technology communications. Robots are already driving mining trucks and commuter trains. Once technology is proven, getting rid of the humans is simply inevitable.
We have seen it happen again and again. Elevator operators. Once humans are replaceable, they disappear. Humans are expensive. Computers are cheap.
Expensive humans 'It's worth remembering that IT cost is typically about four per cent of annual revenue, whereas the labour costs that can be rationalized by smart machines are as high as 40 per cent of revenue,' said a report I quoted in a previous article. As Schwarzenegger's character found out, moving from human to robotic cab service service may not be seamless. Some people might prefer the human touch. And for a while at least, you will be able to get it. If you can afford it.
Rich people may have hung onto their lady's maids to do their delicates. The rest of us converted to washing machines. Once cabs are guided by computers, how long do you think you'll last behind the wheel? This point was driven home to me yesterday as my friend and colleague Kirsty Jefferies rushed into the office looking harried, late for her job as senior producer of The Exchange with Amanda Lang. Jefferies commutes to the Toronto city centre by train.
'It was awful,' she said of a deadly accident that snarled roads. 'It took me an hour and a quarter to get the train station.' Multiply my friend's delay by the millions of people stuck in traffic, each due to a costly human error, and the economic case becomes obvious.
Robot cars will make mistakes at first, but every time they do, their software will be altered to make repeating that mistake impossible. You can't do that with human drivers.
Goodbye freedom There will be tradeoffs. As one chum mentioned, it will be nice to sit with your legs crossed reading a book while you make your way through a traffic jam and only take the wheel once you hit the open highway. But once most cars are run by almost infallible robot drivers, who will want some yahoo swerving in and out of traffic?
You will lose a bit of your freedom, the world will lose a few more jobs, but you and your children will be less likely to die on the roads. One day we will laugh to think about humans being allowed to do something so dangerous. Aging boomers, take note.
When grandma's eyes aren't so good, she won't lose her driver's licence. I think this week we are watching the beginning of the end of the motorist, at least the kind of motorist who actually turns the wheel and pushes the pedals and buttons. And as much as anything, the reason is economic.