Well cool, there's a "Cars" theory that the cars killed all the humans
This is a completely legitimate question: What happened to all the humans in Cars?
The Disney and Pixar franchise follows a group of lovable, racing cars. These cars are anthropomorphic, and basically live and function as if they are humans. But they are not humans. They are cars. You’d expect someone to suddenly jump out of Lightning McQueen and be like “hey guys, I’m a human!” but after two movies, it hasn’t happened yet. Will it happen in the third? Probably not.
And seeing as how the world of Cars exists on this same Earth, in the back of our minds, we can’t help but wonder, what happened to all the people?
Don’t worry, this is something Cars‘ creative director, Jay Ward, has thought about, too! Talking to ScreenCrush, he details how he thinks the world of Cars came about. And yes, it involves the cars absorbing the humans.
"If you think about this, we have autonomous car technology coming in right now," Ward explains. "It’s getting to the point where you can sit back in the car and it drives itself. Imagine in the near-future when the cars keep getting smarter and smarter and after one day they just go, 'Why do we need human beings anymore? They’re just slowing us down. It’s just extra weight, let’s get rid of them.' But the car takes on the personality of the last person who drove it. Whoa. There you go."
So according to Ward’s theory, we’re making the robots so smart that one day yes, they will overthrow us all — but keep our personalities. You might be gone, but at least your spirit will live on via your used 2013 Kia Soul! (Pun intended.)