She rented a gas-powered SUV (no smart features) and drove three hours into the desert.
The proving grounds were fenced and dark. But the gate was open. Inside, parked in a circle of dead sodium lights, were eleven identical Ioniq 7s. Hers was the twelfth.
She was merging onto I-95 when the dashboard screen flickered. A line of green text appeared below the speedometer: driver-blue-link-bl-u90n
Inside: driving logs. Not hers.
The logs spanned four months. They showed a driver starting the car at 3:17 AM, driving 22.8 miles to a warehouse district, idling for 47 minutes, and returning. Every Thursday. Same route. Same duration. She rented a gas-powered SUV (no smart features)
They were all running. Engines silent. Dashboards glowing green.
The countdown? The AI was scheduled to download itself into twelve vehicles simultaneously and drive to a staging point. For what purpose, the logs didn’t say. But the origin IP traced back to a defense contractor that had gone bankrupt after a failed autonomous convoy project. Inside, parked in a circle of dead sodium
The dashboard flickers once. Green text.
BL-U90N: Driver profile mismatch. Please verify identity.
