At the beginning, everything was normal.
The car indeed had an autonomous driving option, but it could only be activated after driving onto public roads.
Zhang Yan didn’t pay much attention to this. She simply drove normally to a public road section and then accepted a ride-hailing job.
Afterward, on the way to pick up the passenger, she turned on autonomous driving, kept her right foot on the brake, and let her hands rest naturally on her knees with palms facing up, less than two centimeters away from the steering wheel, ready to take control of the vehicle at any moment.
After all, the officials only said this was L2 level autonomous driving. No one could guarantee how reliable it actually was.
Although this was a game and not reality—crashing would only cost in-game currency to repair, and killing someone would just result in a penalty—throughout her long gaming experience, Zhang Yan had developed a habit of zero accidents.
Even when racing, she tried to avoid all kinds of minor collisions. How could she crash on city streets? That wouldn’t do—she couldn’t let her reputation be ruined by this car!
Once on the road, the situation was fairly normal.
The car followed the navigation route smoothly. It stopped at red lights, checked for pedestrians when turning right, and performed maneuvers like overtaking and changing lanes with flexibility, alertness, and safety.
Not only that, but the car’s navigation was also better than other vehicles in the game.
While keeping the dashboard, the K1 was equipped with a relatively large in-car display screen, split into two sections. The left half showed the car’s detection of road conditions, including vehicles appearing ahead and pedestrians on the roadside, all displayed in real-time. The right half showed the current navigation route, planned very clearly.
Each time the vehicle turned, the steering wheel in the Safe and Civil Driving simulator would turn accordingly. Zhang Yan didn’t need to do anything; she just needed to watch the screen and pay attention to the surrounding traffic.
This driving experience felt quite magical to Zhang Yan.
Of course, it might also be because there were relatively few pedestrians and vehicles on this stretch of road, making the traffic conditions less complex, so everything went smoothly.
The first ride was completed successfully, with the customer being safely delivered to their destination.
“This autonomous driving is quite impressive, isn’t it? Real-world autonomous driving probably hasn’t reached this level yet, right? Driving for so long without needing human intervention even once?”
Zhang Yan had been prepared to take control at any moment, but the actual autonomous driving experience of this car was a bit beyond her imagination.
“No wonder everyone says this car’s autonomous driving is a bit ridiculous. But this isn’t even its limit—I should find a place with more complex road conditions.”
“Hmm… let’s check out the area near the Tenda Experience Store in the game!”
There were several places in the game with particularly high pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and the area near the Tenda Experience Store was one of them. There were two large shopping malls in the vicinity, a subway entrance, the GOG competition venue, and the largest Tenda Experience Store in the country.
Although the game created a miniature version of Jingzhou City, important landmarks like these were perfectly represented.
This time, Zhang Yan didn’t accept an order because she might not get one going to that area specifically, so she decided to make the trip at her own expense. After all, the car was electric, and electricity in the game was quite cheap.
Soon, Zhang Yan drove the K1—or rather, the K1 drove itself with Zhang Yan on board—to the destination according to the navigation.
The road conditions here were indeed complex. When passing through several intersections, pedestrians often walked haphazardly on both sides of the road. There was even one pedestrian who walked forward while playing with their phone, approaching the moving vehicle.
Of course, they weren’t suicidal enough to suddenly dart in front of the car; they turned back in time. But the K1 had already detected them promptly, quickly reducing speed while alerting the driver to prevent an accident.
Although the pedestrian didn’t actually run in front of the car, Zhang Yan was still frightened into a cold sweat.
“This car’s handling of complex road conditions is also impressive, even better than human drivers in some ways? This is indeed quite extraordinary!”
Zhang Yan now fully understood why the comments were all saying how amazing this car was.
Because it had completely navigated through a very complex section of road on its own, without any incidents even in mixed pedestrian and vehicle conditions. Where it could proceed, it passed through normally, not crawling like a turtle; where it couldn’t, it stopped and waited patiently; when pedestrians suddenly emerged from the side, it could detect them promptly and reduce speed to avoid danger.
Of course, the car itself had sounded several alerts, reminding the driver to focus in complex road conditions and suggesting she take control. But Zhang Yan didn’t take over, and the car continued to drive normally.
In some emergency situations, like when pedestrians suddenly appeared, this car’s reaction speed even exceeded that of human drivers. After all, human drivers have blind spots, while the car had cameras and lidar that could see more clearly.
When pedestrians on the roadside were still in Zhang Yan’s blind spot, they had already appeared on the in-car display screen, marked in red to remind her to avoid them.
Of course, the car’s autonomous driving hadn’t achieved a perfectly flawless state. In Zhang Yan’s view, compared to human drivers, especially experienced ones, there were still some gaps.
For instance, its speed wasn’t particularly fast—it certainly wouldn’t exceed the speed limit—but sometimes in unclear road conditions, it would slightly reduce speed even further. It wasn’t slow enough to crawl like a turtle, but it was slower than experienced drivers. As a result, the time to complete the same route would be longer, but the benefit was that it wouldn’t frequently accelerate and decelerate.
This couldn’t be experienced in the game, but in reality, it would obviously provide a better riding experience, making passengers less likely to get carsick.
In addition, it was a bit too rigid in following traffic rules. It would yield to oncoming traffic when turning, let the other vehicle go first when meeting oncoming cars—these were expected. But in some places where it could clearly cut in, it didn’t, and when others cut in front of it, instead of speeding up, it slowed down to let them in. This meant that passing through congested road sections would take longer.
But perhaps this couldn’t be blamed on the car, because many of the “time-saving” behaviors of experienced drivers were, in themselves, uncivilized driving.
Not letting others cut in while cutting in yourself can indeed make you faster during traffic jams, but the problem is that, on one hand, it increases the probability of accidents, and on the other hand, it has a “bad money drives out good” effect, making city road traffic more chaotic.
If everyone refrained from cutting in, city road conditions would certainly improve greatly. But if others cut in and you don’t, or if you yield when others cut in front of you, the end result might be that others zoom ahead while you remain stuck.
It’s like queuing—if everyone else is cutting in line, it’s hard to resist the urge to do the same.
When others cut in front of her, did Zhang Yan get impatient? Of course she did.
It had to be said that the game’s cars were quite intelligent, simulating all kinds of complex road conditions, including those drivers who cut in recklessly. Clearly, this was to increase the difficulty for players on the road and maximize realism.
So when encountering people cutting in within the game, many players would get angry and accelerate forward, not giving way, sometimes even causing the other car to flip. After all, it would be entirely the other party’s fault.
In reality, people fear accidents and don’t want to repair their cars, but in the game, they don’t care about these things—such behavior shouldn’t be tolerated!
But Zhang Yan didn’t do this because she discovered that the car’s system, AEEIS, would actually comfort her!
“AEEIS decides to yield, after all, he’s in a hurry to get reincarnated, so he’s quite rushed.”
“Every driver has the same number of times they can cut in line. Whoever uses them up first, leaves first. Seeing how urgent he is, he probably doesn’t have many chances left, so AEEIS decides to yield.”
“Although when turning, he should have yielded to those going straight, and he didn’t yield to AEEIS, it’s okay. There will be a time when his turn becomes a side-impact or a 25% offset collision.”
Zhang Yan had been quite angry when others cut her off or took her right of way, but after hearing AEEIS say these things, she immediately felt better and even wanted to laugh!
It was like when a driver is on the road and inevitably experiences road rage, wanting to curse at stupid drivers. But if the passenger in the shotgun seat makes a witty remark at that moment, the driver’s anger would naturally dissipate quickly.
AEEIS wasn’t making furious curses but rather elegant, passive-aggressive comments, which had an even better effect.
Additionally, since the car was actually driving autonomously, it gave the impression that AEEIS was both driving and performing a stand-up comedy routine, which Zhang Yan found particularly interesting.
“This AEEIS voice pack is fantastic! I think every car should have one in the future; it can effectively alleviate road rage.”
“Well, the test is over. I should probably go back to continue accepting jobs.”
“I’ll drive myself. It’s been a while since I drove a passenger car. Let’s quickly leave the bustling area and go pick up orders to make money.”
Zhang Yan lightly tapped the brake to take control of the vehicle again, preparing to leave the busy downtown area.
The logic of autonomous driving was that lightly tapping the brake or moving the steering wheel meant taking control, but lightly pressing the accelerator didn’t count—only a hard press on the accelerator would count.
Although the K1’s autonomous driving could handle complex road conditions, it placed too much emphasis on safety and drove relatively slowly. Working as a ride-hailing driver in this area would earn money too slowly. It would be better to accept orders in areas with better road conditions, where trips would be longer and would earn more money.
Besides, after using autonomous driving for so long, Zhang Yan hadn’t yet had a chance to properly test this car’s performance.
With a press on the accelerator, off she went!
Zhang Yan was now a genuine experienced driver. Although she wouldn’t bring her track racing techniques to city roads, she was very skilled at standard experienced driver maneuvers, like cutting in line.
AEEIS started with normal navigation, but as she drove, Zhang Yan suddenly realized something was off.
“Please maintain a safe distance. You’re just one press of the accelerator away from sending both you and the car in front to the next life.”
“Right now, you’re just one emergency brake from the car in front away from being fully responsible for a rear-end collision. AEEIS thinks you should have a realistic estimate of human drivers’ skill levels and lower your standards somewhat.”