Traffic (Complete two-hundred pages) (Moving to Kindle Vella in 30 Days! )

40

PITCH

"FINALLY!" SHOUTED THE GIANT. "What took you so long? I preordered everyone's meals before they even arrived!" The giant shook his head as though the waiter were the rudest man he'd ever known. The waiter apologized. All eyes diverted from Jack and fell on the sweet potato chorizo hash with eggs and avocado crème placed in front of Jack. The waiter served Margarita a plate of chipotle and jalapeno bagels and served Senator Arturo Anthony a plate of chilaquiles. Margarita shot Jack a look that read: that should take the pressure off for now. Best to finish your explanation before the senator finishes his meal.

The senator was scarfing down his meal like a hungry dog.

"As I was saying," said Jack, "the company that will be integrating their secure software into Mr. Cortez's trucks will be showcasing the benefit of many years of security development. The biggest thing that our company has done to make us successful is that we've integrated a security network recognition system used by certain especially secure digital currencies. Are you familiar with the security behind digital currencies and how it makes it impossible to counterfeit online currency? No? Well, basically each coin or piece of digital currency is tagged with a currency recognized by the whole Internet of other coins of the same currency. Every coin transaction is tagged to its history and the constant reshuffling has created a history too extensive and rising to be duplicated out of thin air. For someone to try to manipulate the system to create a new coin, the coin would instantly be recognized as counterfeit by the enormous network of currency and will be deemed void before it can even be used for transaction."

The politician nodded the whole way through Jack's pitch. He had no clue what Jack was saying.

"What does digital currency security have to do with autonomous vehicle security?" At least he was able to identify the topics at hand.

"Well, just like each coin validates the legitimacy of the software of other coins, otherwise they become null and void and unable to use for transactions, each car will validate the legitimacy of the software of other cars, otherwise they become null and void and revert back to previously legitimated software."

The politician nodded, swallowing. "What if say, a Russian completely replaced a car's software with their own and so there was no previously legitimate software to revert back to once the neighboring cars detect the Russian virus software?"

"Well, that would mean the Russian software would remain null and void but the car would no longer have any software to revert back to. So it would remain in park."

"What if hypothetically it were driving upon receiving the virus?"

Jack said, "You're probably thinking the car would either stop or keep going right? The car has a backup and it also has a reset function where it can pick up software downloads duplicated from other cars in the area or via satellite."

The politician said, "What if it duplicates software from a car in the area which also carries the virus."

Jack added simply, "It won't. It only accepts legitimate software that match the satellite codes."

"What if the satellite is hacked?"

"The satellite doesn't hold the code, it reflects the code received from a ground station."

"What if the satellite receives two codes? From both legitimate software and virus-attached software. If the car has no software to detect which is legitimate and solely bases the software's legitimacy by if it comes from the satellite, how is it to differentiate between an original and a hack?"

"Well," Jack said, slightly stumped, "that's highly unlikely."

The politician put his last bite down. Wrong answer.

Margarita looked worried and the giant looked calm but displeased. The giant's face read: One more shot, buddy.