The world of 'Cars' has a dark and terrifying origin theory

Once you hear it, it's the only thing that makes sense.

So, spoiler alert (Lightning McQueen pun intended): What you're about to read could forever warp the way you look at Cars.

Screen Crush editor Matt Singer spoke with Jay Ward, creative director of the Cars world at Pixar, and apparently the author of "The World of Cars Owner’s Manual," a top secret internal document at the Disney animation division.

Singer didn't get his hands on the Cars bible during a recent press junket, but he did ask its creator for his (very unofficial) theory on how a world of talking cars -- and no humans to drive them -- came to be.

His answer:

If you think about this, we have autonomous car technology coming in right now. 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.

If you're thinking what we're thinking -- dark, gritty, postapocalyptic prequel! The Autopacalypse! Planet of the Jeeps! -- then it's probably a good time to remind you that Ward was riffing, and not (necessarily) giving Singer the official Pixar origin story. If there even is one.

But as I'd said, now that you've thought it, can you un-think it? Didn't think so.

Even this revelation paves the road to additional questions, like ... if Jay Leno and Mario Andretti were pod-peopled by their own cars, does that mean Lightning McQueen did in Owen Wilson, but took on a different name and identity? Who automated a junky old tow-truck? And -- can I trust my Buick?

Cars 3 comes out June 16.