This is also a theme that turns up on occasion in science fiction. From Keith Laumer's Bolo series about intelligent tanks to Roger Zelazny's classic short stories "Devil Car" and the sequel "The Last of the Wild Ones," these stories typify the theme that your high school english teacher probably referred to pretentiously as man vs. machine.
In Zelazny's stories, computerized cars of the near future become infected with a radio-communicable virus that turns them "wild." Such cars "mono" their owners and strike off for the wild country. They eventually form "car herds" where the big cars fight for mastery and a harem of sports cars.
Noder Zerotime reports: Robert Rankin also steals Zelazny's idea for a scene near the end of The Most Amazing Man Who Ever Lived, and Ouroboros suggests that Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive is another candidate.
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