7. Fast Forward
By: Dennis Mulryan
Tags: Self Driving Cars, Science Fiction, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Police Drones

Sergeant Rico Gomez settled into his seat as the patrol car accelerated up the ramp to the 101 and prepared to enter the High-Speed Interlock lane. The car’s on-board computer immediately began communicating with other cars speeding down the highway, informing each of the intended merge. With the precision of a marching band at the Rose Bowl, the lanes of traffic opened a slot, and the patrol car blended into traffic without a pause. No small feat when the chain of vehicles was traveling over 100 miles per hour.

Rico was admiring the spectacular sunset, made more so by the smoky haze from ongoing forest fires when his partner announced: “We have 30 minutes to travel the 50 miles to our patrol area in Compton, should be plenty of time.” Rico acknowledged, “Thanks Echo. Please show me today’s operations briefing. I need to catch up on what’s happening in the precinct. And, by the way, where’s Micky?”

Echo replied in her business-like tone, “Calling up the operations briefing to your headset Sergeant. As for Micky, he was scheduled for routine maintenance and will join us before we begin our shift — if he doesn’t get distracted.” Micky was the rookie on the team, and Echo felt it her duty to rein in his adventurous spirit. Rico was more lenient and thought his senior partner was sometimes too tough on the new guy. He zipped his lip and decided best not to get into that topic with her again.

Rico and Echo had worked together for four years and had a good working relationship. His style was more from the gut or, as he preferred to call it, intuitive. Echo, on the other hand, played everything by the book, which sometimes clashed with Rico’s instincts. Still, he was happy to let Echo handle the ‘paperwork’ duties at which she excelled. Both Micky and Echo were AIOs — Artificially Intelligent Officers created by the LAPD Deep Learning Project. Each AIO was based on a neural net database containing the expertise, actions, and outcomes of thousands of real officers. The project’s goal was to instill each AIO with the skills and characteristics of the ideal police officer.

Individual AIO’s drew on different parts of the database, depending on their assigned roles. For Echo, it was vehicle and command center operations. For Micky, it was aeronautics and special tactics. Along with their different skill sets, an side effect was that each AIO adopted a blend of personalities derived from the human officers who contributed most to their areas of expertise. Echo and Micky fell on opposite ends of the personality spectrum. When you added Rico’s act on a hunch approach, it made for dynamic team chemistry.

With Echo driving and Micky arriving later, Rico turned his attention to the operations briefing. Like the occupants in the cars around him, he welcomed the extra time afforded by self-driving vehicles. Getting work done was just one benefit of not having to drive. Many passengers used the spare time to catch up with friends, get an education, or just sleep.

Self-driving cars were only part of the bigger vehicle-to-everything transportation ecosystem, otherwise known as V2X. Not only did cars talk to each other, they interacted with every part of the traffic system — finally, no more waiting at dumb red lights with no other vehicles in sight. Data uploads from every car were combined to create up-to-the-minute traffic reports that provided the quickest and safest route for each individual car. It was like Waze on steroids.

Following a trend set by Uber and Lyft, most cars were not owned by their occupants. Instead, they were one-way rentals, called via an app to take passengers to their destination and continue on to their next fare or to a parking garage to await rush hour traffic heading in the opposite direction.

Instead of huge parking garages, cars were stacked in conveyor tubes below ground where they were charged, sanitized, and delivered to street level like a Pez dispenser. Since there were no drivers or passengers opening doors in the garage, cars could be stored in 30% less space, and the move underground freed up valuable real estate for other developments.

Roads also got a facelift. Construction techniques like perpetual pavement and nano clay materials made for smoother rides and lasted 50 years, reducing construction delays. Gone were the legendary LA traffic jams and thousands of hours wasted sitting in gridlock. With higher speeds and optimized traffic flow, cities found they could handle three times the amount of traffic on the same routes built at the turn of the century. No need to tear down neighborhoods for new roads.

Toll roads didn’t disappear. Instead, all roads became toll roads. With GPS tracking of every vehicle, owners received a monthly bill based on model and miles driven. Anti-tax crusaders could finally celebrate the demise of the gasoline tax used to pay for roads, although by that time, it was a moot point since gasoline sales all but dried up when electric vehicles took over. It was ironic that with high efficiency and high convenience, cars and roads evolved into the perfect, pay as you go, mass-transit utility.

Not all the changes were welcome. Even economists were surprised at the ripple effects on the economy, and the Great Employment Crisis of the 2030’s that followed. The obsolescence of the internal combustion engine might have been good for the planet but not so good if you were among the one million workers making their living in the gas station industry. Bad news too for the 3 million truck, bus and livery drivers whose jobs went to drone jockeys tracking 200 vehicles at a time while sitting in control centers, often located in a different country.

Cars were so smart, accident rates and theft plummeted, putting thousands in the insurance industry out of work. With fewer accidents, there was less need for trauma nurses in emergency rooms or orthopedic surgeons to put accident victims back together. Auto body repair shops began to close, and the local garage went the way of the Dodo as more people chose to forego car ownership when a command to their digital assistant would bring a warm car to their doorstep. A lot of home garages became man-caves.

There was resistance to change, of course, and there were many who cried ‘conspiracy theory’ as they decried the loss of freedom of the road. And they were right. There was a conspiracy. It was called the market and its infiltration was insidious. Year after year, dealers showrooms filled with new model vehicles that were a little smarter than the year before. People bought and loved the new conveniences, and their buying behaviors changed. Eventually, economics won the day. The spiraling costs for insurance in a shrinking risk pool plus the exclusion of older ‘dumb’ cars from the new high-speed lanes tipped the scale toward the fully integrated smart transportation system.

NASCAR still ran old gasoline-powered cars, and race drivers remained in control of their stardom, but the sport had come to resemble horse racing in its anachronisms. Since the fan base didn’t experience driving, they became more and more disconnected from the sport. There were still a lot of the old cars registered, but they were mostly owned by antique enthusiasts who took them out for weekend drives on backcountry roads.

Sergeant Gomez’s job had also evolved since the adventures of the old California Highway Patrol depicted in the ancient TV program CHiPS. Gone were the days of roaring engines and high-speed chases. With one touch, Gomez could instruct a perpetrator’s car to rollup the windows, lock the doors and come to an orderly stop. Echo, his patrol car, still had blue lights and siren, but they were seldom needed when, like Moses raising his staff over the Red Sea, the network could command traffic to clear the way,. Newspapers rarely got to report on babies delivered on the freeway.

Unlike old patrol cars, Echo was a sophisticated tactical command post. Rico was able to call up maps and view aerial video from any of the hundreds of police drones that hovered over the city day and night. Sound detectors pinpointed gunshots within 10 feet of where the gun was fired. Drones would then encircle the area to identify, isolate, and capture the shooter. If Gomez got into a jam on foot patrol, his patrol car would zoom to the rescue just like Trigger, the horse when Roy Rogers gave a whistle. If needed, the car could dispatch its on-board flying drone to assist and protect.

Advances in police technology went beyond the patrol car. All officers wore augmented reality goggles that gave them eyesight even Superman would envy. Gomez was old school and still wore the original model headset rather than the newer digital contact lenses that projected directly onto the retina. With a squint of the eyes, the glasses zoomed to view distant objects. As he walked his beat, background processes performed facial recognition on those he encountered and alerted him to individuals with open warrants. The goggles could even detect if a suspect was lying based on voice patterns, eye movements, and body language. Just like cars, officers connected in real-time to the police AI cloud, which continuously monitored field situations. Any controversy over body cameras vanished once it became clear the system saved the lives of officers and citizens.

Rico had just finished reviewing his operations briefing when a familiar voice came over the communications channel. “Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a fly-by!” Echo responded with a terse negative to the request just as Rico caught sight of an object racing toward them ten feet above the speeding traffic. He gave a wry smile as the object flew by in a barrel roll complete with blinking police lights and siren. Moments later, the same voice announced, “Greetings partners, this is LAPD-D6771 requesting permission to come aboard.” Rico jumped in before Echo could reply, “Hey Micky, about time you showed up, permission to board granted, just try not to scratch the paint job.”

“Not to worry Rico. Not my first rodeo. Ghost Rider out.” The little drone banked into a turn and approached the patrol car from behind. Rico heard the airflow over the car change as the docking station cover retracted. Micky swooped down, hovered briefly, then dove into the docking bay. Micky stuck his ‘head,’ which happened to be on his belly, through a porthole in the ceiling and announced, “Sir and Madam, Micky reporting for duty, what’s up?” Echo was not amused, “What’s up is that your impression of Tom Cruise in the movie Top Gun is not appreciated and could affect operational readiness! I suppose you expect to draw on joint resources to recharge your power pack after wasting energy on your aerial antics, which by the way, violated at least three departmental guidelines.”

Ignoring the verbal lashing, Micky replied, “Echo, I didn’t know you were a fan of Crash Cruise. I’ll bet you have a secrete crush on him, although he may be a few inches too short for you. As for the recharge, the maintenance guys just gave me upgraded power packs, so I won’t need any of your precious electrons. Besides, I wouldn’t want to limit your work on your ‘special’ project.” If Echo had a nerve, Micky just hit it. Echo was proud of her current project and was not going to let the rookie have the last word. “I’ll have you know, my work on the history of needlepoint has been well received by the American Guild. Furthermore…”

Rico decided it was time to step in before things got nasty. “Ok, you two; let’s not start the shift with an argument. I want you both to run your diagnostic checklists before we arrive on station.” There was a brief silence as Echo and Micky did the electronic equivalent of biting their tongues and replied in unison: “Yes sir, commencing diagnostics.” Both went silent as they began running through their checklists.

With the arrival of their drone partner, the patrol unit was now fully operational. Rico was enjoying the quiet when his headset announced an incoming visitor. Recognizing the caller, he accepted and turned to greet the person who materialized next to him in the passenger seat. “Hi Rico, long time, no see.” Rico smiled and replied, “Hey, Maria, good to see you too.” He had known Maria since they were teenagers and she had grown into a strong, passionate woman, especially when it came to her work. She expected everyone to be on her team, and he suspected she was calling on him for a favor. He tried to gain the upper hand.

“So, what impossible situation have you gotten yourself into this time?” Maria shook her head, “When are you ever going to give me a break. I could have gotten out of that jam myself if you gave me more time.” She was referring to the time they were climbing Yosemite’s El Capitan, and he had to rescue her when she got stuck hanging over a rock roof on a short rope. That and more than a few other experiences had made them friends for life. Rico couldn’t resist getting the last word. “Without me, you’d still be hanging over that cliff like one of my Abuela’s hot peppers on a string!”

“Ok, enough of the history lesson,” she replied. “We have something important to discuss. I want to ask you about Timmy Finn.” Maria was a Legal Aid lawyer and known for taking on the hardest cases, mostly involving juveniles. She was expecting Rico to try and talk her out of this one. Rico shook his head. “Well, I guess I was right about that impossible situation. That kid is toast. I mean, the Mayor wants his head on a platter!” She decided it was time to remind Rico of his own history. “I remember another kid who was so-called ‘toast’, and someone helped him when he was down.” She saw from his expression that the comment hit home and went on, “Besides, Timmy didn’t do any harm to person or property, just to ego.”

Rico wasn’t convinced, “Maria, the kid hacked the Mayor’s Avatar and changed his lapel pin from the American flag to the Irish flag for the whole of Saint Patrick’s Day. Everyone the Mayor met with that day saw it. The Mayor didn’t realize it until the Irish Ambassador called to thank him. I tell you, the powers that be are really pissed.”

Maria sighed, “But he’s not a bad kid. He was just doing what white-hat hackers do — counting coup. It’s like when the American Indians would sneak up on a member of another tribe just to touch him and run away. Then they got to put a notch in their coup stick. The more notches in your stick, the more respect you got. The way the authorities are throwing the book at this kid, you’d think he scalped someone.”

Maria explained, “I got word they are trying to pin three other hacks on the kid, one of them is a 5 million dollar bank job. He could be looking at serious prison time for pulling a harmless prank.” Maria paused before dropping the bombshell, “Besides, I’ve been told he was a student of the Teacher, and she is asking for leniency in his case. She thinks the kid is very promising and can make great contributions.” That got Rico’s attention, “Oh shit. You really know how to pick’em. I mean, the Mayor versus the Teacher? Talk about a rock and a hard place. Not sure I want to be too close to you right now.”

Maria assured him, “Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to break any rules, just a request for some miracle police work.” Rico listened as she continued. “It seems the kid’s computer has gone missing. I want you to keep an eye out for it. I need that computer so we can get the log files to prove he didn’t do those other hacks.” Rico gave her a doubting look, “Are you sure it’s missing? I heard the DA is saying the kid hid it to get rid of evidence?” Maria nodded her head, “I interviewed the kid, and he swears it was in his room when they raided his house. I believe him.”

Rico had trusted his life to Maria more than once and was prone to believe in her judgment. “Ok, I can ask around and see if anyone’s trying to move it. But I wouldn’t give it much of a chance. It’s probably changed hands a bunch of times by now and is long gone.” Maria encouraged him, “Please give it your best, that computer could save this kid’s life. Let me know if you find anything.” Rico nodded, “I’ll do my best. Good to see you again. We need to plan a climb some weekend?” Maria smiled. “Love to if I can find the time. Speaking of time, I have to go. I’m due to meet with Matt. He wants to discuss something important but wouldn’t say what.”

Rico smiled at the mention of Matt Mitchell, the man who changed his life. In his youth, Rico was being raised by his single mom in East LA and got swept up into the gang culture. He had been caught in a stolen car with some other punks and was looking at a year in Central Juvenile Hall in Boyle Heights. The place was better known as a gang finishing school than for rehabilitation. Matt had shown up at his arraignment and volunteered to bring him into his Outward Bound group. He promised the judge he would never see Rico before his bench again.

That was the beginning of a new life for Rico. He and Matt and a bunch of other kids, including Maria, went on to face Mother Nature in her most beautiful and often dangerous moods. The highlight was when Matt and his team of misfits became the first Outward Bound group to climb Mt Everest. And they did it the hard way.

By that time, there was an easier way to ascend the world’s tallest peak that skipped the base camps, ropes, and oxygen masks. In his elder years, Elon Musk looked at the retreating Himalayan glaciers and saw an opportunity other than the retrieval of 100-year-old frozen bodies of climbers who succumbed to the mountain’s death zone. Musk moved on his idea and tasked his Boring Company to create a tunnel and tube system that would take passengers to the top of the world. At first, Tibetan Buddhists put up fierce resistance to the project over objection to the desecration of their holy mountain, but eventually, the promise of tourist dollars won the day. That promise was kept when the tube and summit lodge became a hugely popular ‘bucket list’ destination.

Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary would have been proud of Matt and his kids when they chose to make their ascent the old way. Their hard work paid off. The Everest climb and other experiences transformed the youngsters into self-reliant men and women. Matt, serving as their surrogate father, instilled in them a respect for nature and a mission to help others. Many of the group went on to careers in service. Some became Outward Bound counselors themselves: Rico became a police officer, Maria became a legal aide.

With those memories in mind, Rico gave Maria a knowing smile as he signed off, “I’ll let you know if I find anything about the kid’s computer. Say Hi to Matt for me. Tell him, I miss him.” Maria’s image faded away, and Rico was alone with his thoughts. He wondered what kind of crux Maria was getting him into.