"So you see, your Honor, all of the vehicles on the roadway are controlled by one computer, yet each individual vehicle is one part of the whole. This way we have one large super computer. Each individual in the system increased the capacity of the system. They also, since they are essentially the same, that is they are in harmony with the system, work together. There are no rogue elements."

"We have discovered that when the roadways were occupied by vehicles that were controlled by humans there were a number of rogue elements. I have some examples. First, there is the person who is fearful. Their driving is out of sync with the environment around them. These people drive slower and make overly cautious transitions. The second is impatient. This driver is constantly making changes. As we all know, when a person changes lanes or their speed is out of sync with the norm this is most dangerous. The next is the forceful person. This driver will drive dangerously close to another car (this is known as tailgating) even at high speeds. Their apparent goal is to force the other driver to change lanes. Since their reaction time is so slow compared to the proximity to the car ahead of them they cause many dangerous accidents. Another person is the distracted person. This driver is involved in conversation, possibly on a cell phone. Even a device like a Bluetooth doesn't help."

"I have many other examples I can give you."

The judge sees someone walk in the back door. He puts his hand up. "We can hold off on those for now. You can put them in writing. What I wish to know is what happened on the day in question."

"Well, as you know sir our solution was simple. We put on the road only cars that are controlled by computer. This way we eliminate the anomaly. All of the vehicles can work in an ordered fashion. If a vehicle needs to transition, it can do it in a safe manner. We can also put more cars on the road and pack them closer together since the machines reaction time is so much faster."

"And again," the judge interrupted, "what happened?"

"It appears that one of the cars decided to stop."

"You mean on its own initiative?" The judge said, taking some notes.

"Yes, he acted somewhat like a cancer does."

"And then?"

"Due to the close proximity of the vehicles behind they collided into that vehicle. The accident cascaded across lanes, and before we could stop it many cars were involved."

"It was about 1000 cars." The judge said sternly.

"Yes, it was 1234 cars. An interesting number."

"Yes, very interesting." The judge said sarcastically. "And how many people died?"

"It averaged about 4.37 persons per car. Fortunately some of the people in the back were saved — somewhat. The system had to shut down, and it took some time to restart. Since the emergency vehicles were on the same system it was at least one half hour (35.2 minutes) before they could start and then it was difficult to get them to the back of the accident. The rescue vehicles at the front were useless."

"There are some positives in all this. First, since we do not use gasoline or diesel there were very few deadly fires. Also, in the years that we have done this the calculated saving in loss of life is somewhat greater than the actual loss of life and limb in this one accident so in case…" He suddenly stopped and his head dropped.

"I thought you would never get him to shut down." The judge said.

"It took a while to shut down the whole system." Said the man at the back, "I believe all of the robots are shut down now, unless there is a rogue robot." The man answered sarcastically.

"I guess we will need to find a way to travel." The judge said, getting up. "Maybe we can refit the computer cars."

"I don't know about that sir, but I don't think I can trust the machines anymore," said the man, holding the door for the judge.

"That would be a very interesting development." said the judge, walking down the hall with the man. "Very interesting indeed."