The Magician's Circle of Salt can bind an Autonomous Vehicle

Laying a trap for self-driving cars by Devin Coldewey

A bargain-bin artificial mind would know that one of the most critical rules of the road is never to cross a solid line with a dashed one on the far side. But of course it’s just fine to cross one if the dashes are on the near side.

A circle like this with the line on the inside and dashes on the outside acts, absent any exculpatory logic, like a roach hotel for dumb smart cars. (Of course, it’s just a regular car he drives into it for demonstration purposes. It would take too long to catch a real one.)

It’s no coincidence that the trap is drawn with salt (the medium is listed as “salt ritual”); the idea of using salt or ash to create summoning or binding symbols for spirits and demons is an extremely old one.