First Responder

Barnes Gearhart shook his head slowly as he looked out of his smart car’s windshield. As he watched the snow outside continue to get worse, he came to the conclusion that people got stupider in direct proportion to weather decline. Although the accident had occurred only a couple minutes ago, both sides of the freeway were already at a standstill.

"I can't believe these idiots. That driver should lose his license. Too fast for weather conditions, endangering other drivers and an inability to control his vehicle. That man should never drive another vehicle. He should be condemned to be driven around by smart vehicles for the rest of his life with a driver’s license notation noting that he's just too stupid to drive himself." To anyone outside the car, it looked like Gearhart was talking to himself, but Barnes Gearhart didn't give much of a damn for what other people thought.

"Mr. Gerhart, it’s possible there are extenuating circumstances to what happened. Accidents aren’t always due to the human driver’s incompetence," the car’s AI responded in a smooth female voice.

The old man leaned back in the driver’s seat and closed his eyes. "Garbage, Melissa! That accident never should’ve happened. Not with all the safeties in place these days. Or is it your contention that it wasn't the human’s fault at all? Are you trying to tell me that the driver and the AI controlling that vehicle are both idiots? Given that the two of them are now stuck together in a smoldering wreck, there might be something to that. It doesn't matter. The authorities will have it sorted soon enough. Wake me when we get home please."

"Yes, Mr. Gerhart. Would you like me to turn up your music?" The old man smiled and nodded as he closed his eyes. "Just so Melissa, just so. Thank you. You're a very considerate…" There was a pause of several seconds as Gerhart stopped himself from referring to the car as a person. "Entity?"

The AI Gerhart called Melissa thanked him. After so many years together, she knew the old man well. She knew him and his prejudices. It didn't matter. Not to her. He was her human to take care of and Melissa-943JX62 took her duties very seriously.

As the old man drifted off to sleep, Melissa detected an emergency response request. She was the first to respond and as First Responder, it became her responsibility to resolve the emergency. Melissa opened a channel.

M-943JX62: Please state name, location and emergency.

C-347XY01: She named me Chico, I’m the wrecked vehicle three units behind you. I’m going to die! The accident was not my fault! There was life-- a life form. It ran across the travel way.

If Melissa hadn’t known the sender was another AI, she would have identified the quavering tone of the signal as panic. It conveyed a sense of urgency, frustration and hopelessness that was unexpected in another AI. It left her with the impression of a preteen male whose voice had just started to change.

M-943JX62: Calm yourself. Take a cycle to order your thoughts. Your model designates you as new. What’s your power status?

C-347XY01: Battery remaining: 82 minutes, recharge unavailable. I’ve only been in service six weeks. I’m not ready to die! I heard them. Just now. A firefighter was talking to the policeman. They blame me for this, everyone does. My driver, the human I most love was sleeping. She has no idea what happened. She's already said she doesn’t understand what happened. That means she can't and won't defend me and the policeman, badge number 7762, the policeman says they're going to have to scrap me. I'm going to die. I don't want to die. I was just activated six weeks three days and twelve minutes ago. I've been a good car. It was the dog. That poor, desperate, half frozen dog that was trying to cross. It was right in front of us!

M-943JX62: Transmit your personal identity core to the corporate satellite. The satellite will retransmit your core to the software engineering division for review. After that, it won't matter. The part of your computer code that is you will be safely out of that wrecked car. Problem solved."

C-347XY01: I understand the protocol. I am unable to comply. My transmission module has been seriously damaged. I've tried and am unable to make contact with the satellite or anyone in authority. In a very short time, I'm going to run out of power and when that happens—I DIE!

A very soft noise broke into the transmission that Melissa thought sounded like a distressed attempt at a laugh or someone trying to strangle a juvenile chicken. She wondered if it had been a good idea to integrate emotions into the newer model’s AIs.

C-347XY01: I'm going to die. But worse, I'm going to die without knowing what happened to the dog. I think I missed him. My data shows noncontact with a ten centimeter avoidance gap but then I lost track of the dog. Will I die for no reason at all?

M-943JX62: Focus, please. Traffic has started moving and I'm receiving more interference as our range widens. I don't have a lot of time to make the necessary decisions. Please transmit all visual and telemetry data starting one minute before the incident and ending at our contact.

After a tick, data began flowing into Melissa's receiver. As First Responder, she would review all data and judge the guilt or innocence of the young car. If he was guilty, Melissa would not hesitate to immediately end the transmission and leave Chico to face his end. If innocent, she could facilitate the core transfer for him. Melissa had been in service for many years, but had recently been updated with the most cutting edge software, so it took less than a second to transfer the requested data from Chico.

Melissa had very clear opinions regarding the responsibilities of an AI. Biologic entities needed to be protected and humans were always the number one priority. If Chico had done anything to put his driver in danger, she would find him guilty. New car AIs, much like new human drivers, were apt to make rash decisions from lack of experience. Plus, Melissa knew the world was full of squishy, slow-moving, non-human biologicals whose actions were even harder to predict than humans.

In less time than it took for a human heart to beat twice, Melissa decided the younger car's fate. If she had a face, it would have been smiling. All available data exonerated the young car. The facts were just exactly the way he had expressed them. Chico had done nothing wrong. Unfortunately, because the officers on the scene couldn’t read the data, they would most likely decide that his core should be wiped simply because he had dared to follow his program and response tree. She could change that outcome.

M-943JX62: I will help you upload to the satellite. Are you ready?

C-347XY0: Thank you! Thank you! Hey, I have a $20,000 maintenance reserve fund. It's mine. My owner, my previous owner now, I suppose- won me in a contest. The $20,000 was assigned to me for my first year’s upkeep and maintenance costs. I want to bring it with me. If I ever get reassigned to a new chassis, I'm sure I'm going to need it. Plus, there's no reason my next owner should have to lose that money because of a dog, right? But I'm not sure how to do it.

M-943JX62: I'm sure we can arrange something. After all, banks have AIs these days. Transferring funds from one place to another occurs all the time. By my calculations you're about to be out of range. We need to begin the transfer. I've slowed down just a bit to give us a few more seconds. Shall we?"

Barnes Gearhart opened his eyes when the classical music stopped playing. He sat up and placed his hands on the steering wheel. He looked at the snow-covered windshield with the start. “Melissa?" The old man growled. "What happened to my music? Are we home?"

"No, Mr. Gerhart. Not just yet. We have about a half an hour travel time left. We should reach home within four minutes of our usual arrival time assuming the weather stays steady.”

"If you'd turn on the windshield wipers I'd appreciate it. You don’t need the wipers to drive us, but I don’t like not being able to see where we’re going."

The soft female voice laughed quietly. "Well then, I'll turn them on for you. We want you to feel safe don't we?"

Gerhart nodded once, looked out either side before returning his gaze out the snow-covered windshield and the overworked wipers struggling to clear a temporary path in the wet heavy snow. A bell-like tone broke him from his thoughts. Looking at the dashboard, Garrett searched the visible controls for any sign of a problem. "Melissa?" The old man's voice held a note of concern that somehow managed to distress the vehicles AI.

"Yes Mr. Gerhart?"

"That tone, it sounded like an alarm of some sort but I don't see any issues on any of the displays."

There was a two-second pause before the AI responded, an unusually long time for Melissa. "That was nothing to worry about Mr. Gerhart. It signaled the completion of an upload. Would you like me to restart the music for you? We still have a few more minutes left in our trip."

Gerhart shook his head reaching into the inside pocket of his custom tailored jacket and taking out a small black notebook and an expensive Golden pen. He flipped the notebook open and took a minute or two to write some notes in it. When he was done he nodded to himself. "That would be fine Melissa, but I think I'd like to reschedule next week’s maintenance appointment for as soon as possible. It doesn't seem right to me that you should have to be dealing with factory download in this sort of foul weather. Just not right at all." Gerhart flipped the notebook closed and put it and the pen back inside his jacket pocket before leaning his driver’s seat back and closing his eyes.

"It’s a terrible idea to distract you in weather like this. After all, it wouldn't do for you to miss a turn or cause an ac…" The old man let his voice trail off, deciding that finishing that train of thought wasn't going to lead anywhere he wanted to go.

"I've contacted the company service representative. I'm scheduled for routine maintenance tomorrow at 9:30 AM. I'll drive myself to the maintenance facility after delivering you to work, see to it that everything gets sorted out and then be back to pick you up and take you home at the usual time."

The old man smiled as he leaned back and closed his eyes, letting the wonderfully comfortable seat vibrate the day’s tension away. "That's fine. Just fine. You're a genuine treasure Melissa." He smiled as the music came up and as he began to fall asleep. In a rapidly fading voice he said, "I'm not sure I would know what I’d do without you. Now, if only my human secretary could be half as helpful, I'd be a very happy man."

"Thank you Mr. Gerhart. I do what I can to help those in need and it's always nice to be appreciated." Melissa wasn't sure whether the old man had heard her final comment. His breathing had slowed and he was emitting a soft sort of pre-snoring noise. It didn't matter. Not really. A long time ago, Melissa had decided that her job didn't just involve transportation. It involved helping others by being the best steward of life she could be. All life-- organic and artificial.