The Crash of 2017

Wall Street, Hackers, and Autonomous Cars

Imagine sitting in the passenger seat of your brand new autonomous car as you drive down the highway on a beautiful summer morning.  Then one moment you  look up and much to your astonishment the car in front of you starts to swerve and then careens frantically off the road.  Then, out of the corner of your eye you see the transport truck in front of you wobble  slightly, cut right in front of you and then fly over the center guard rail into oncoming traffic! Just as you are about to scream, the most frightening thing occurs. Your car unexpectedly slows down.  And then every other car on the highway slows down and stops.  You are stuck in the ultimate traffic jam. Nothing is moving. Then, much to your surprise, a clown face pops up on your computer monitor and a loud voice screams “You have just been violated! Welcome to your new America!”  That’s when it hits you. You are stuck in the first global traffic jam!

The God Algorithm….Who Dies?

Ironically, the autonomous cars of the future should actually be called autonomous modules because they will all just be small pieces of a bigger system solution that still needs to be developed. For example, imagine your car is driving you quickly down the highway. It drives you over the crest of a bridge and you see that a transport truck has unexpectedly flipped over right in front of you. If your car decides to go straight you will hit the transport truck and die. If your car decides to swerve to the right you will live, but you will kill three people standing on the side of the road. In this scenario, who makes the decision for the “autonomous” car? Who plays God? As you can see, no car will be an island. They will all be part of large integrated systems and this “God Algorithm” will play a key part of our lives and our driverless society. 

These scenarios leave us with many un-answered, and even many un-asked questions. Who will approve and be the master keeper of this ultimate algorithm? Who will decide the death procedure.  Will each car manufacturer have its own rules? Will you be able to pay extra for the ‘self preservation’ algorithm? Will the government control it? If so, which government? Which country’s government? There are still many  “Un-asked questions”.

“Sorry, The System is Down”

The five most terrifying words of the next generation will be “Sorry, the system is down.”  .  In the interest of efficiency most software will be developed centrally and distributed wirelessly.  Therefore, as we continue to move to more and more global systems integration, the impact of a catastrophic failure will increase exponentially.  Will we let software from one country enter our country unchecked in cars? Will they be the ultimate Trojan Horse of our integrated systems of the future?  Will there be standards and procedures?  Will there be rules? There will eventually be millions of drivers who have ready entry points to the vehicle and system software through simple blue tooth connections. A prudent hacker would already be developing software robots that lay dormant until they are plugged into their first autonomous car.  Is anyone checking the software from these new digital entry points that are already available today.  It would only take about a five percent infection rate to plug all the highways in a continent.  And then, the worst part is….. who do you call?

Wall Street:  Broker of the new ‘Silicon - Washington’ !

Let’s face it. Cars of the future will mostly be massive software projects. Sure we will need engines and brakes, but what actually differentiate one car from another will be the software package on board.  Before we authorize millions of autonomous ‘software hosts’ to plug our roads and highways with the worst kind of virus, we need stronger software standards, regulations and inspection procedures, all being coordinated by Washington.

The problem is that Washington and Silicon Valley are currently at odds over many issues, not the least of which is privacy. However, this autonomous car issue is so vast and encompassing that  it should already be an issue of national security.  It needs to be addressed. The fact that software suppliers and government regulators don’t see ‘eye-to- eye’  on a certain issues,  should not affect the global decisions we need to be making right now on autonomous vehicles. There will inevitably be an opportunity for great wealth creation if the world can do this efficiently. Wall Street has the skills, the backing, and the money. It has brokered many major deals before. Perhaps they could see fit to broker the biggest deal on the planet right now. Perhaps they could be the brokers of the new cooperative atmosphere between technology companies and government regulators. Perhaps Wall Street could broker the new…… ‘Silicon Washington’!

The autonomous car is actually a misnomer. It should be called the autonomous module. Global transportation systems of the future will continue to be more integrated and more complex. Vehicles of the future  will just be parts of a larger integrated software system. There are very many issues yet to be resolved. How is the average citizen supposed to discuss and understand all these complex  issues?.......  Perhaps we could  all take a crash course.

Mike Verge is President and CEO of “Verge and Associates” Strategic Consultants

He is author of:  “Global Deflation” (available on Amazon)

He can be reached for comment at : verge.mike@gmail.com