The Passengers(80)
‘And you believe this is justifiable?’ said Libby. ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this but AI isn’t the enemy – you are.’
‘Tell me, Miss Dixon, what did you expect us to do?’ Jack responded. ‘Did you really think that we’d allow the cars to make all the decisions? We aren’t stupid; of course we were going to keep a tight rein over them. We have been afforded an unimaginable, once in a lifetime opportunity to protect the people who shape our society, who save lives, who contribute, who make it a better place for all of us. It is our duty to put them first. Do you think we should squander it in the name of an equality our country has never actually had? This is merely a modernisation of the class system. If you needed a life-saving operation, would you want a doctor or a supermarket shelf-stacker to hold the scalpel? Who would you prefer to rescue you from a burning building? A trained firefighter or someone with a learning disability?’
‘You judge lives based on disability too?’ asked Muriel.
Jack laughed. ‘Of course we do!’
‘But we are all God’s—’
‘Save it for Sunday’s sermon. Did you or your wife have a typical twenty-week screening test for your baby?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘To make sure everything was okay.’
‘And if it wasn’t?’
‘Well, er, we’d have to make a decision based—’
‘You’re a hypocrite. Because if we valued disabled people as much as we claim we do, we wouldn’t be testing for foetus abnormalities during pregnancy.’
‘This is no better than what the Nazis did,’ accused Libby. ‘You’re using accidents as an opportunity to erase anyone who doesn’t fit your profile of what society should resemble.’
‘We are hardly deploying soldiers to round people up and ship them off to camps, are we? All we are doing in the rare event of a fatal car accident is to put the country first. It’s natural selection for a modern age. Of course I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand.’
‘This isn’t what the people wanted,’ Libby continued. ‘Do you remember the results of that survey by an American university? Millions of users from around the world answered ethical questions about who should be prioritised in a crash and their answers were supposed to be the building blocks for policymakers like you.’
‘It was called the Moral Machine and global surveys like that should be taken with a pinch of salt,’ Jack replied. ‘They’d only been completed by those who were tech-savvy so they didn’t represent the opinion of every demographic. And each scenario only had two outcomes – these people should die or those people should die. If we were to take the results on board, we’d be allowing our laws to be influenced by different cultures in different countries. Do you want the views of the Chinese or the Saudis to dictate who lives or who dies on British streets? That’s ridiculous.’
‘What has been the point of these inquests then?’ asked Fiona. ‘If a decision has already been made, then what we’ve been doing is inconsequential. Has anything we have ever said made the blindest bit of difference?’
‘When the deceased weren’t carrying identity cards or phones and we knew very little about them, then your judgement was useful.’
‘These inquests are nothing more than smokescreens, aren’t they? The Government is hiding what you do behind these inquests under the guise of a due process that doesn’t exist.’
Jack closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘This is becoming tiresome. Introducing driverless vehicles was the most seismic overhaul of the motor evolution since cars first joined our roads. Not a single person watching this farce play out has any idea of how much effort it took behind the scenes to make it work. And you criticise us because we’ve had some tough decisions to make? How dare you! Whether you like it or not, statistics speak for themselves and the bottom line is this – because of what I have helped to create, our roads have never been safer. The most expert driver in the world cannot respond as consistently well as these cars do.’
Libby pointed to the screens. ‘Try telling that to the families of Victor, Bilquis, Shabana and the hundreds of people caught up in the explosions and who died this morning. And perhaps mention it to the Passengers still trapped in those cars waiting to die that what you’re doing is for the greater good.’
‘You are as ignorant as you are stupid, Miss Dixon.’
‘Right back at you, Jack, right back at you.’
‘The time,’ interrupted Matthew. ‘Look at the clock.’
Each juror turned to look at the countdown display. Just two minutes remained until the Passengers were scheduled to collide.
Chapter 54
From a distance of 1,200 miles above the earth’s surface, the Astra satellite beamed live images of a large expanse of wasteland on to the inquest wall. Flashing blue and red dots surrounded it, which Libby assumed to be lights attached to emergency services vehicles.
Smart motorways and dual carriageways surrounded the industrial estates on the outskirts of Birmingham. It housed manufacturing plants including the former Kelly & Davis factory, which was now just rubble and vacant land.
As the satellite focused more closely, Libby noticed carriageways had come to a standstill as spectators left their cars and hurried to witness the forthcoming collision from a safe distance. The police held some back while others stood on bonnets and roofs for better views. Clearly they hadn’t been scared off by the detonation of Shabana’s vehicle that had left dozens injured and dead.