Faster

by Alex Schuler

  “. . . a rotating multi-beam system?” Sam continued, her cheeks now slightly red. “You must get a lot of data from it.”

  “We do!” Harry seemed to have appeared from nowhere and quickly maneuvered himself between Ted and Sam. “It lets us see not just where we’re going, but also what might be coming from the sides. It sees almost everywhere. Like Sauron.”

  “Who?” Sam asked.

  “Ignore him,” Ted said. “Come check out our control system.”

  Ted casually pushed Harry aside and opened the driver’s door of the Humvee. Sam paused briefly as she looked at the cacophony of wires, servos, and actuators in the driver’s seat.

  “What the hell is all this for?” Sam stuck her head inside and ran her hands along the gear. “Is this to drive the thing?”

  “Of course,” Ted said with a broad smile. “Pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

  “Amazingly outdated.”

  Ted’s smile vanished. He put his left arm around Sam to pull her closer to the equipment inside Cyclops.

  “What are you talking about? This is a robot inside a robot. We can steer, brake, and accelerate. Not only that, but—”

  “Ted, I get how it all works. Like I said the other day, all this extra mechanical hardware is just begging to break down. I can only imagine how difficult it was to not only build this to work, but to tweak it each time it needs to be re-calibrated. We do all of this in Athena with software.”

  Sam pulled herself away from Ted and took a few steps back as another wild gust rose. She lowered her aviators to shield her eyes.

  Aware that a certain amount of bravado was all part of the fun, he still found her condescending attitude more than a little annoying. “Software is only as good as the hardware it’s connected to, Sam. You need both.”

  “Of course you do. But you also need to use the correct hardware and software in the right areas. You have to play to their strengths. It all comes down to efficiency.” Sam pointed to the towering lidar atop the Humvee. “That’s some impressive hardware you’ve got up there. But I can tell you that our digital gimbal is just as good, and with less mechanical parts to break.”

  “Bullshit!” Ted felt himself getting angry. “There’s no way Athena’s lidar can do what ours can.”

  “Really? Funny, last time I looked, you came in second.”

  “Ash-hole,” Ted mumbled under his breath.

  “What?” Sam asked.

  Ted folded his arms as he clenched his fists behind his elbows. He glared at Sam for several seconds. With her aviators on, he couldn’t tell what she was thinking or feeling.

  “So it’s your birthday?” Harry broke in as he nervously positioned himself between Ted and Sam again. “Or someone else’s?”

  “What?” Sam seemed confused. “Why would you ask me that?”

  “Your hat.” Harry pointed to her royal blue cap with the Ashton logo emblazoned on it.

  Sam’s ponytail holder caught and came loose as she took off her baseball hat and sunglasses. Blond strands rippled in the wind reminding Ted of a kite. Sam spun the hat around and frowned at the sight of a white sticker that proclaimed Birthday Girl in pink letters.

  “Ralph must have done that. I told that little shit to keep his mouth shut.”

  “Is it today?” Harry asked.

  “It doesn’t matter. I never celebrate it.” Sam shoved the hat over her head, popped her aviators back on, and slid her hands into her pockets. “Anyway, both of our teams should be proud. If the Qualifying Stage is any indication, we’re farther ahead than the rest. Good luck today.”

  Ted remained silent as Sam turned and walked away.

  “Good luck! And happy birthday!” Harry called out. He waited for Sam to turn back, but instead, she lowered her head and continued on toward Athena. “I wonder what that was all about. Who hates their birthday?”

  “Who cares,” Ted said. “She’s wrong about our hardware. She’ll see.”

  Cyclops was parked with the nineteen other vehicles at the start of the racecourse, roughly fifty yards from the bleachers. The course was a ten-mile loop, covering thirteen laps. DARPA had placed the start/finish area behind four rows of concrete barriers for security. A series of loudspeakers were mounted nearby, similar to those inside the big top where the four DSU leads and Rusty had watched the scoreboards during the Qualifying Stage.

  “Attention all teams.” The speakers sputtered from overhead, the announcer’s voice echoing against the mountain range on the far side of the field. “All people, clear the field. Team representatives, report to your stations in the big top. The race will begin shortly.”

  “Harry, clean up that paint can.” Nico slid on his wraparound sunglasses to deflect the sand swirling around his face. “I’m heading to the tent. Ted?”

  “I’ll meet you there.” Ted was leaning against Cyclops. He pivoted to his left and slammed the driver’s door closed. He peered through the window to admire the elegance and complexity of the robotic controls adorning the interior. “She’s wrong.”

  “Who’s wrong?” Kyle Fisher asked.

  Ted turned around, shocked to see his old boss standing behind him. Before Ted could reply, Kyle pulled Ted into a bear hug. “Good luck, Ted!” From the confines of the embrace, Ted glanced over at Harry frantically working to secure the sand-covered paint lid to the can before eventually just giving up and rolling the brush inside a rag. With a second rag, Harry wrapped the small can, covering the top.

  “Are you heading inside?” Ted asked as Kyle released him. “Or are you toughing it out in the bleachers?”

  “Neither. I’m in a chase vehicle.”

  The twenty vehicles were spread out in five rows of four vehicles spaced ten feet apart. To help minimize the risks of hitting one another, they would be released in groups of four, in ten-minute intervals. Each vehicle would be timed based on its start time. Off to the side of each row of autonomous vehicles sat four black Chevy Tahoes. A total of twenty were poised to serve as chase vehicles. Some had cameras mounted on extendable cranes to film the race. Others had localized remote kill switches to disable the vehicles with the push of a button. Each group also had one Tahoe with a massive brush guard in case they needed to run an out-of-control vehicle off the course. The DARPA vehicles would remain on the far edge of the course, so as not to interfere with the competitors.

  “Which group are you in?”

  “Yours. I’m driving the rig with the video mount.” Kyle glanced around to be sure nobody else was around. “I’m betting this race will come down to you and Ashton. I’m really proud of you, Ted. Good luck.”

  “Thanks.”

  Ted smiled and watched Kyle make his way over to the fleet of Chevys on the opposite side of the field. A whirring that sounded like it was coming from Cyclops sent Ted’s heart to his throat. Frantic and ready to spring to action, he spun around only to see Steve Wozniak slowing to a halt on his Segway. Harry was immediately by Ted’s side, smiling and pointing to the paint-stained Apple logo on the front of his shirt.

  “Woz up?” Harry asked with hope.

  Steve remained stone-faced before looking up at the lidar array perched atop Cyclops.

  “Are you getting a full three-sixty view with that thing?” Steve asked as he kept his eyes focused on the sensors.

  “Almost,” Ted said. “We have gear on the back that fills in the blanks for us.”

  “I see.” Steve glanced back and forth between Ted and Harry and then nodded slightly. “Good luck today.”

  Steve leaned forward, sending his Segway on to the next team. Harry, who had been holding his breath, let out a long and loud exhalation.

  “He hates me,” Harry said softly.

  “He doesn’t even know you, Harry.” Ted chuckled and put his arm around Harry’s shoulder. “I’m sure he says the same thing to everyone. Let’s ge
t to the tent.”

  As they began walking, Harry stopped and turned to watch his idol zip from vehicle to vehicle, spending less than ten seconds at each one. It was a truly odd mix of competitors. The monstrous Oshkosh MTVR towered in the front row. Directly behind it in the second row was the motorcycle from Berkeley. In between were various trucks, SUVs, cars, and custom-built machines of all shapes and sizes.

  “It looks like the pod race from Phantom Menace,” Harry said. Ted just shook his head.

  ***

  The tension inside the big top was palpable as people were settling into the first complete hour of the first event of the DARPA FAST Challenge. To nearly everyone’s surprise, most notably DARPA, all twenty competitors were still in the race. The vehicles released in waves combined with the different speeds at which each one was operating had created a fairly even spread across the course. DARPA’s concern that contestants would crash into one another like bumper cars had not come to fruition.

  Ten giant overhead screens hung in a checkerboard at the front of the big top. The five on the left had split-screen images from inside each vehicle’s POV camera. Two were devoted to the leaderboard to show the real-time positions of each vehicle, taking into account when each vehicle left the start line. The last three alternated feeds from the different chase vehicles as well as the two overhead helicopters.

  An hour in had Cyclops in first place, followed by Athena and Berkeley’s Easy Rider in third. As with the last challenge, the scoreboards displayed only very limited information on each vehicle’s performance, leaving scoring calculations a mystery once again. The teams realized you could use the POV images to determine where a vehicle was in relation to the other groups’ entries. Berkeley’s bike had just sailed passed TerraCrusher from Oshkosh Defense and was closing in on Athena.

  “That thing’s fast.” Ted glanced at the calculations he’d made on the notepad resting in front of him. He nervously tapped his pen several times as he verified his formulas. Nico was sitting beside him, his eyes fixed on the display from one of the chase vehicles following Easy Rider. “Nico, if my math is right, there’s no way we can win this.”

  Ted slid his notepad over to Nico. Nico picked up a pen and spun it across his thumb and fingers as he reviewed Ted’s figures. Nico’s ability to twirl a pen or pencil along the tips of his thumb and index and middle fingers was truly impressive and he could even do it to a fixed rhythm.

  Lori approached the DSU table carrying a tray filled with sandwiches, placing it in front of Ted and Nico.

  “Thanks,” Nico said without stopping his twirling.

  As Lori reached over to grab a turkey club sandwich, she flipped her hand out, sending both Ted’s and Nico’s pens flying to the floor. “You two need to calm down.” Lori put the sandwich on a plate and took a seat beside Ted. “We’re an hour into this with a hundred miles left to go. Cyclops is doing fine.”

  “Cyclops isn’t our problem,” Ted said. “Berkeley is.”

  Lori looked up at the leaderboard. Easy Rider was now in second place.

  “That group left ten minutes after us.” Lori took a bite of her sandwich and grabbed Ted’s notepad, quickly scanning the numbers scrawled across the page. “Shit.”

  One of the DARPA monitors switched to the lead chopper. Easy Rider was closing in on Cyclops. The POV displays showed DSU’s Humvee running at forty miles per hour, but the motorcycle was at forty-five miles per hour and accelerating.

  “Even when that stupid thing falls down, it gets right back up with those automated kickstands.” Harry grabbed a bag of potato chips from the tray and tore it open, shoving a few into his mouth. “Cyclops, Athena, and a few others have all run into some impasses that make them stop or slow down. Easy Rider’s recovery time is insane. That damn bike is possessed!”

  “If he maintains that pace, he’s going to not only come in first but will do it by several minutes.” Ted looked around on the ground until he found his pen. He picked it up and snatched the notepad from Lori. “Cyclops will get up to forty-five on the open straights, but Easy Rider is maintaining a much higher speed overall. That bike accelerates faster than anything else out there.”

  Rusty, who’d been up at the DARPA operations center, approached the DSU table. He surveyed the tray of food and opted for a roast beef sandwich.

  “How are we doing?” Rusty asked.

  “What kind of question is that?” Ted replied. “Look at the screen!”

  A roar exploded from the Berkeley table as the leaderboard showed that Easy Rider had moved past Cyclops for first place. The bike had yet to pass the Humvee, but based on the time of departure, it was now in the lead. The POV camera mounted between the motorcycle’s handlebars produced an extremely unsteady image. Still, the closest chase vehicle showed that Cyclops was approximately two hundred yards ahead of the bike and losing ground quickly.

  “It’s early in the race,” Rusty said calmly. “Everyone should relax.”

  Ted looked over at Nico and Lori, and then to Harry. He started to open his mouth to speak but stopped himself. Ted couldn’t understand why Rusty seemed so relaxed. They were early into the competition and losing to a motorcycle. Rusty should be livid. Ted debated showing Rusty the math he’d done but decided it was best to keep quiet.

  “Shit.” Lori took a sip of her bottled water and pointed at the overhead monitor on the far right. “It looks like we may have our first casualty.”

  The screen was showing the feed from the Tahoe following a Jeep Grand Cherokee from Team Skynet, a venture capitalist–funded entry. The heavily modified SUV was veering wildly back and forth across the course. Luckily, there were no other vehicles around it aside from the Chevy.

  “The lidar and GPS are offline!” The panicked voice came from Team Skynet’s table at the back of the room. “Sarah’s running blind! We can’t stop her!”

  DARPA switched three of the screens to track the Jeep. One monitor was from the chase vehicle, another from a chopper, and the last, the POV camera inside the SUV. The Grand Cherokee was making a run for the side of the course and accelerating. So far, she was up to forty miles per hour. The edge of the track was littered with small ruts and vegetation. Sarah bounced as she refused to slow down. The grooves got deeper and more difficult for the SUV to navigate. Suddenly the Jeep flipped over, rolling end over end. Chunks of sensors and gear scattered in every direction. The SUV crashed into a cluster of boulders and burst into flames.

  “Team Skynet, you are disqualified.” The cold monotone voice echoed from the overhead speakers.

  “So much for the rise of the machines,” Harry said with a smirk.

  “One down,” Ted said. “I’m still worried. How come Rusty’s not freaking out over Easy Rider?”

  “Don’t poke the bear, Ted,” Harry replied. “Do you really want Rusty yelling at us? A lot can happen between now and the end of the race.”

  ***

  Three more hours passed. During that time, two other vehicles faltered, both due to equipment failure. The remaining seventeen were spread across twenty miles. Easy Rider had stayed close to the math that Ted had projected, and was now several miles ahead of the pack, with Cyclops a distant second, followed closely by Ashton’s Athena.

  Ted had resorted to chewing on his pen, redoing his calculations every thirty minutes to confirm his theory that DSU could not win the race. Ted could see that Nico was suppressing his desire to twirl his pen, thanks to the glares Lori was giving both of them. Rusty was sitting at the far end of the table with his legs crossed and elevated. Ted grabbed his notepad and slid his chair around Harry to sit beside Rusty.

  “You seem especially calm,” Ted said.

  “Someone has to be. The four of you are completely on edge.”

  “But I’ve been running the numbers, and Berkeley is—”

  “That stupid bike is not our problem. Ashton is. They al
ways have been.”

  “I’ve been doing the math, and you’re wrong.” Ted held out his notepad. Rusty glanced at it briefly and then looked back at the overhead screens. “You need to see my figures.”

  Rusty waved his hand and motioned Ted to go away. Ted felt his blood pressure rise and was about to object when he felt Harry’s hand slapping against his thigh. He turned around to see what Harry wanted.

  “What?” Ted asked with frustration. Harry pointed at the monitors on the right side of the operations center. One was showing the feed from the Tahoe following Easy Rider. The bike was located in a wide-open section of the desert with very few obstacles. “What am I looking at, Harry?”

  “Easy Rider’s POV view. Check out the speed.”

  The image from the motorcycle’s POV was jittery, but Easy Rider’s speed was falling rapidly. Ted’s eyes darted back and forth between the images from the chase vehicle and POV cameras. As the bike’s speed dropped below twenty miles per hour, a murmur began to roll across the tables in waves. Ted scooted his chair around Harry’s and flung his notepad onto the table.

  “What the hell is going on?” Ted asked Nico. “Why are they slowing down?”

  “I have no clue,” Nico replied. “Lori, what’s the scoop with this part of the course? It doesn’t look like a huge incline.”

  “It’s not,” Lori said. She glanced back toward the Berkeley table. “Whatever it is, they don’t seem too happy.”

  Ted stood up to get a better look at the other side of the room. Team Berkeley was in a huddle around one of their workstations. The murmurs had risen in volume throughout the room. Ted looked up at the bike’s POV monitor. The image from the camera was now crystal clear. Easy Rider had deployed its kickstands and come to a complete stop.