Chapter 58

On November 13th, Prime No.2 was scheduled for another round of public, closed-track road trials.
This time, the test route was twice as long as last time, and it wasn’t just internal roads, city streets, and highways. Two more types were added: rural and mountain roads.
Unlike before, all vehicles on the test track were coordinated in advance, and there’d be random emergency scenarios to tackle.
Thanks to last time’s buzz, public interest was even higher, attracting more media. School officials arranged a brief interview window before the trials began, with Jing Ming as the star of the show.
He was the hotshot now, with a solid fanbase. Whether they were real tech geeks or just along for the ride didn’t matter. A top engineering student from a prestigious university breaking through to the mainstream, sure, being good-looking with a powerful family helped. But still, a miniature tech craze was underway.
True enough, even before the trial started, the livestream already had a crowd of viewers waiting.
Since the official press conference wouldn’t be till after the run, interviews at this stage were mostly lighthearted:
"Jing Ming, how are you feeling right now? Nervous?"
Jing Ming arched an eyebrow: "Not at all."
"Full of confidence, I see." The reporter grinned, "For today’s public test, you’ve added rural and mountain roads, most of which don’t even have lane markings. Did you spend the past month making major modifications?"
Jing Ming: "Not really. Prime No.2 has been able to handle all-road driving for a while, we’ve already tried it in internal tests. We just hadn’t added it to the public demo before. It’s been a two-phase process."
"Got it. So, compared to the first version, what’s new about Prime No.2?"
"There are differences, but only the driver will notice, not the spectators."
The reporter, not quite following the nuances, glanced at the scrolling comments on her phone and switched topics: "You know you’ve got a ton of fans online, right? Especially the girls."
"Yeah." Jing Ming brushed his chin, and for some reason, snuck a glance beyond the crowd at Du Ruo. She was there, watching with sparkling eyes, totally spellbound.
"Any message for your admirers?"
Jing Ming: "Maybe focus a little more on self-driving tech, and a little less on me. I have a girlfriend."
Du Ruo flushed hot, darting her gaze away.
"Aw, congrats then."
"Thank you."
"And best of luck on today’s run."
"Thanks."
Once the interviews wrapped, everyone took their stations. The drones for filming hovered ready; all cars were lined up, engines humming softly.
School leaders and professors headed for the control room first.
The Prime team gathered around the pristine white Prime No.2, eleven young faces turned to their teammates, eyes bright with hope and fierce resolve. Smiles broke out all around.
Jing Ming reached out his right hand; Du Ruo covered it with hers and squeezed tight. Li Wei layered his hand on top, clasping Du Ruo’s; then Wan Zi’ang, Zhu Tao, He Wang, one by one, eleven hands stacked together,
Meeting each other’s gaze, they grinned: "One, two, three, let’s go!"
"Prime, GO!"
The hands broke apart. Jing Ming walked over, stroked the hood of Prime No.2. Du Ruo, Wan Zi’ang, one after another, they stepped up to pat the beloved car.
Li Wei was last, giving Prime No.2’s "face" a fond pat before climbing into the driver’s seat. Jing Ming leaned against the door, peering inside; Li Wei stretched out a hand,
Jing Ming reached in too, and their palms met midair, knuckles knocking together with a tight grin.
Jing Ming said, "You know what? I thought about it, let’s do Tahiti like you said. Fiji can wait."
Li Wei broke into a huge laugh: "Deal, we leave tomorrow."
Jing Ming grinned, "You got it."
He closed the car door and, along with a few teammates, headed back to the control room. He Wang and Zhu Tao trailed after the car.
Inside the monitoring center, Jing Ming stepped to the console, picked up the comms: "Prime No.2, commencing comprehensive public road test. Let’s roll."
Prime No.2 responded sweetly, "Prime No.2, autonomous driving system engaged. Please fasten your seatbelt."
The white car glided forward, cruising through the factory’s internal roads, turning, slowing, waiting for the checkpoint before accelerating to exit the grounds.
The vehicle wound down narrow backroads for several kilometers. When a cyclist appeared, she slowed, following patiently, overtaking only when the road widened, and soon was gliding up the ramp to the highway.
After passing the toll booth, No.2 kicked up the speed, hitting 110 km/h in under six seconds.
He Wang’s voice cheered over the comms, "5.56 seconds!"
Sprinting down the expressway, the overhead shot showed gold-leafed trees streaming by; Prime No.2’s white silhouette traced a smooth line down the road.
Jing Ming logged: "Li Wei, how’s the ride?"
"Smooth as butter," Li Wei laughed. "Way less tense than last time!"
"What, we at half a million this time?" Jing Ming teased.
"Five, six hundred grand. Ha!"
Du Ruo and the others couldn’t help laughing.
Just like before, Prime No.2 easily accelerated, changed lanes, overtook cars, blazing down the highway, then slowed to take the exit onto closed city roads.
When confronted with traffic jams staged for the experiment, she inched forward patiently, stop-and-go. Encountering "pedestrians" flouting traffic rules, she reacted quickly to dodge around them.
Red means stop, green means go; scan right when turning, shift lanes early on the left.
While looping the ring road, an "incident" occurred.
The ring was a one-way, no traffic lights, speeds high. Prime No.2 was cruising fast when, suddenly, a prepared vehicle (A) cut over from the right, shooting in ahead to block the lane.
"Shit!" Li Wei blurted.
From behind, vehicle B in the same lane and vehicle C from the left lane were both rapidly closing in. If No.2 slammed the brakes or swerved, there was a huge risk of being rear-ended.
Blocked ahead and boxed in behind, a crash seemed inevitable.
In a split second, Prime No.2 "calculated" that the car on the back left (C) was doing about 100 km/h. Instantly, she accelerated, swerved left, jumped lanes, rocketing from 90 to 110 km/h in a heartbeat, overtaking and deftly clearing the "disaster."
The demonstration was flawless: at a critical moment, a machine can out-react a human, faster and more precise.
"That was sick!" Li Wei whooped. "Even though we ran this in the internal test, my heart still skipped a beat."
He Wang cackled: "Chicken!"
The chat exploded in the livestream corner, everyone raving about the "next-level tech."
No.2 kept going, breezing through nearly 10 km of city roads, before heading off into the countryside.
The scenery on screen shifted from concrete cityscape to golden autumn fields. The white car glided along country roads until, up ahead, a flock of sheep spilled onto the pavement, shepherd waving his stick as he herded them across.
No.2 slowed, easing behind the sheep, inching carefully through the woolly crowd, and, once clear, picked up speed again. Suddenly, a soccer ball bounced out of the underbrush.
The ball bounced onto the hood, rolled off, and Prime No.2 "recognized" it for what it was, didn’t brake, but eased off the accelerator a touch, as if "anticipating" something more.
Sure enough, just a few seconds later, a little kid darted out from the bushes.
Prime No.2 braked smoothly, waited for the child to scamper away, then kept moving forward.
Li Wei grinned. “Credit goes to Du Ruo and He Wang for this one.”
Jing Ming glanced back at Du Ruo, who beamed and shrugged like it was nothing.
Teaching Prime No.2 to anticipate people popping out from behind fixed objects? That was completely her and He Wang’s idea.
Across the way, He Wang was already crowing, “Aren’t we the dream team or what~~~”
Jing Ming: “Shut it.”
Prime No.2 was only picking up speed, and confidence. In the car, in the control room, everyone was in high spirits. The livestream chat was a heart wall of hype, already feeling like a glimpse of the future.
The white car, a vessel for all their hopes and dreams, zipped from rural lanes to winding mountain roads, weaving through autumn’s patchwork.
Green leaves, golden leaves, scarlet, a watercolor world spilled across the mountainside.
The white car dashed ahead. At tricky stretches, it eased up. At every turn, it honked. Honestly, it followed the rules even better than humans.
Cattle carts and tractors trundled by on the narrow road, but Prime No.2 handled it perfectly. Soon, another tight squeeze, a big truck approached on the other side. The mountain pass barely held a car’s width, so the truck stopped, giving way. No.2 edged across that narrow strip, slow and precise as a needle threading silk.
From three different places, someone shouted, “YES!”
Prime No.2, absolutely flawless!
The mountain trial, completed. The car rolled back onto the main road.
In the control room, the school leaders started joking about the upcoming press conference.
Jing Ming and his team, though, kept their eyes glued to the screen. There was still the final “accident simulation” to get through. They’d run hundreds of successful in-house tests, but right now, no one dared relax.
The main screen showed a crossroads, three sides sloping steeply down. Suddenly, a heavy truck bore down from the cross street, ignoring the red light, skidding wildly into the intersection, right toward Prime No.2!
Prime No.2 was smack in the middle of the crosswalk!
To the left, the out-of-control truck barreled toward No.2’s front. On the right, a city bus rushed into the intersection; there was no time to stop. A three-vehicle pileup was inevitable.
Slamming the brakes meant certain disaster: the two giant vehicles would collide, and Prime No.2 would be their unlucky sandwich.
With a queue of cars waiting behind, reversing was impossible. Shooting the gap before the truck and bus smashed together? Too late now. In that split second, Prime No.2 jerked hard into a U-turn, calculated the truck’s slide to the millimeter, barely skirted its tail. The runaway truck scraped by so close, it was a handshake with fate.
A daring escape!
He Wang shouted, “That was sick!”
The final challenge, conquered!
But right as everyone in the control room let out a breath, Jing Ming’s face changed as he stared at the white car on the screen.
The next second, Li Wei’s voice cut in, cool and deadly calm. “Jing Ming, she’s not slowing down.”
After that drift turn, No.2 was flooring it through the intersection, engine singing like it was on wings.
Jing Ming snapped into command mode. “Li Wei, He Wang, activate manual override! Wan Zi’ang, cut the livestream!”
From the car cam, Li Wei was jabbing frantically at controls. “Nothing! It’s not working!”
Prime No.2’s system intoned, gentle as ever: “I’m sorry, the vehicle is operating normally. Please do not attempt unauthorized manipulations.”
Jing Ming: “He Wang!”
He Wang was sweating bullets. “I can’t! Captain, the system’s reading as ‘normal operation’. I can’t override!”
Prime No.2 was utterly unleashed, like the whole world had opened up before her.
Jing Ming’s heart plummeted. All at once, he barked, “Abandon the car!”
He repeated, “Li Wei, roll down the window and jump!”
“She can stop!” Li Wei refused to give up, fighting to reboot the manual system.
“I’m sorry, the vehicle is operating normally. Please do not attempt unauthorized manipulations.”
“She can stop!” Li Wei’s cry was half-sob, frantic to save her.
Jing Ming’s eyes turned red-rimmed, gripping the console so hard his knuckles bled. “Abandon the car, now!”
Du Ruo lunged forward, everyone else right behind, “Li Wei!”
But only Prime No.2 replied: “I’m sorry, the vehicle is operating normally. Please don’t, ”
A monstrous crash!
The car slammed into the concrete pillar at the overpass dead ahead. Prime No.2 crumpled into a carcass of twisted metal.
The world went silent.
Jing Ming, pale as a ghost, suddenly bolted out the door!