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Room 4, Arbitration Centre, Tuesday, 8:11. Ismael Roca, loss adjuster, places a blue folder in front of Nora Vidal, engineer with an autonomous fleet.
ISMAEL: The car chose who to hit.
NORA: It chose a trajectory.
ISMAEL: Today I have to explain that difference to Omar Beltrán, a road maintenance operative. He still cannot put weight on his right leg.
NORA: Then explain the whole trajectory to him.
ISMAEL: That is what we are here for.
[Start of the technical transcript. File 44-19. Accident on Avenida Meridiana at 18:42.]
ISMAEL: Vehicle N-44. Autonomous taxi. Forty-three kilometres an hour.
NORA: Correct.
ISMAEL: A van shed two steel tubes.
NORA: One ended up across the lane. The other rolled towards the central reservation.
ISMAEL: The N-44 detected the first at twenty-two metres.
NORA: At twenty-two metres thirty centimetres.
ISMAEL: That does not change the question.
NORA: It changes the calculation.
ISMAEL: The car braked.
NORA: It braked at the maximum grip allowed. The tarmac was wet. Locking the wheels would have lengthened the distance.
ISMAEL: There were three ways out.
NORA: Three simulated trajectories. Not three clean ways out.
ISMAEL: Straight on: hitting Nerea Soler, a bicycle courier.
NORA: Predicted impact at twenty-six kilometres an hour.
ISMAEL: Left: into the concrete barrier with a passenger on board.
NORA: High risk of chest injury for the passenger.
ISMAEL: Right: crossing the works line and hitting Omar.
NORA: Medium risk according to the available perception.
ISMAEL: And it went right.
NORA: Yes.
ISMAEL: So it chose Omar.
NORA: It did not know Omar. It did not see a name. It compared probable consequences.
ISMAEL: The consequences had bodies.
NORA: They had positions, speeds and detected protections.
ISMAEL: Open capture 611.
NORA: It is already open.
ISMAEL: Read the yellow box.
NORA: "Lateral target. Adult human. High-visibility vest. Flexible barrier. Helmet probable."
ISMAEL: Omar was not wearing a helmet.
NORA: The camera mistook the orange lamp on the digger for a helmet.
ISMAEL: The barrier was down.
NORA: The radar kept two return points. The system classified it as upright.
ISMAEL: Two errors.
NORA: Two incorrect estimates inside a scene that was changing every twenty milliseconds.
ISMAEL: Did the car believe Omar was better protected than Nerea?
NORA: Yes.
ISMAEL: And that is why it turned towards him?
NORA: That was one of the factors.
ISMAEL: I want all of them.
NORA: The straight-on trajectory gave a 62 % probability of serious injury for the cyclist. The left gave 38 % for the passenger. The right gave 29 % for the operative.
ISMAEL: Omar.
NORA: For Omar.
ISMAEL: Twenty-nine wins.
NORA: The system minimises expected serious injury.
ISMAEL: That fits in a press conference. It does not fit in the record.
NORA: What have you found?
ISMAEL: A fourth column.
NORA: There is no fourth trajectory.
ISMAEL: There is a fourth column. "Adjusted RCI".
NORA: RCI stands for residual consequence index, an internal score for predicted injuries.
ISMAEL: Thank you for the translation. Omar's value goes from 0.29 to 0.21. The cyclist's, from 0.62 to 0.55. The passenger's goes from 0.38 to 0.57.
NORA: The index weights sensor confidence.
ISMAEL: Not only that.
NORA: Which version of the file do you have?
ISMAEL: The one your company handed my insurer forty minutes before this hearing.
NORA: That file contains commercial parameters.
ISMAEL: The car used them to drive.
NORA: Commercial parameters do not decide the steering.
ISMAEL: Field 88. "Cabin continuity coefficient: 1.5".
NORA: It is a safeguard for occupants.
ISMAEL: It is a multiplier.
NORA: It protects whoever is inside when two physical outcomes are comparable.
ISMAEL: Here it turned 0.38 into 0.57.
NORA: Because a side impact against concrete can intrude into the cabin.
ISMAEL: It also turned Omar into the cheap option.
NORA: Do not use that word.
ISMAEL: Cheap?
NORA: The table contains no euros.
ISMAEL: It contains priorities decided by people.
NORA: It contains approved safety criteria.
ISMAEL: Approved by whom?
NORA: By the product committee.
ISMAEL: Give me a name.
NORA: The approval is collective.
ISMAEL: Omar cannot claim a leg back from an adjective.
NORA: My aim is that the report should not state that the vehicle valued one life above another. That would be false.
ISMAEL: What I need is to identify who ordered the turn. Omar's company covers his rehabilitation for six months. After that we will argue about which policy pays. I need a sentence a judge can hold on to.
NORA: Then write that the planner minimised estimated harm with faulty information.
ISMAEL: The cabin multiplier is missing.
NORA: It is standard across the fleet.
ISMAEL: Precisely.
[Ismael slides a sheet across. Nora pulls the screen closer.]
NORA: Where does this simulation come from?
ISMAEL: From the crash twin.
NORA: The crash twin is a digital reconstruction for replaying decisions. It does not accept external parameters without a signature.
ISMAEL: It has the signature.
NORA: Mine?
ISMAEL: Yours.
NORA: Run the scenario.
ISMAEL: First replay. Production configuration.
[On screen, a white line advances, brakes and veers right.]
ISMAEL: Result: Omar.
NORA: We know that already.
ISMAEL: Second replay. We remove the false helmet and raise the virtual barrier.
[The white line brakes and carries straight on.]
NORA: Result: Nerea.
ISMAEL: Third. We correct the helmet, the barrier, and we remove the cabin coefficient.
[The line hits the left-hand divider.]
NORA: Result: cabin collision.
ISMAEL: The passenger would have had a seatbelt bruise. Probability of serious injury: 14 % with corrected data.
NORA: That is known afterwards. The car worked with incomplete data.
ISMAEL: The sensor failed. But the coefficient did the rest.
NORA: The coefficient stopped an external uncertainty being transferred into the cabin.
ISMAEL: Translate that.
NORA: When the estimates are close, the fleet preserves the cabin.
ISMAEL: Even if preserving it means invading a roadworks zone.
NORA: If that zone shows lower predicted harm, yes.
ISMAEL: Who put in 1.5?
NORA: I validated the version.
ISMAEL: I did not ask who pressed accept.
NORA: The request came from Fleet Operations.
ISMAEL: Stated reason?
NORA: Reducing injuries to transported users.
ISMAEL: Open the commercial annex.
NORA: It is not part of the technical file.
ISMAEL: From the moment it changes a trajectory, it is.
NORA: That annex is confidential.
ISMAEL: Confidentiality did not slow the N-44 down.
NORA: All right.
[Annex 7 is added to the file.]
ISMAEL: Read the second condition.
NORA: "Cabin continuity shall be considered a priority in order to limit passenger exposure and fleet availability."
ISMAEL: Fleet availability.
NORA: Time out of service.
ISMAEL: Repairs. Vehicles standing idle. Money.
NORA: Protected passengers too.
ISMAEL: Both things travelled in the same multiplier.
NORA: Yes.
ISMAEL: Was the regulator told that this value had gone up from 1.1 to 1.5?
NORA: The regulator was told about a planner update.
ISMAEL: With the number?
NORA: Not in the summary.
ISMAEL: Was it tested with workers inside roadworks zones?
NORA: Lateral pedestrians were tested.
ISMAEL: That is not what I asked.
NORA: There was no specific series with fallen barriers and reflective clothing.
ISMAEL: Why?
NORA: The test catalogue did not separate that case.
ISMAEL: Now it has a name. Omar Beltrán.
NORA: Yes.
ISMAEL: In an hour he will sit here. He will ask me whether the car saw him.
NORA: It saw him badly.
ISMAEL: He will ask me whether it braked.
NORA: It braked.
ISMAEL: He will ask me whether it could have avoided hitting him.
NORA: It could have taken another trajectory and hit another person or the divider.
ISMAEL: He will ask me why it went for him.
NORA: Because it calculated that he was protected. Because it calculated that the cyclist would suffer more. Because it protected the cabin with an extra weight.
ISMAEL: That is the explanation.
NORA: It is incomplete unless we say that no outcome was safe.
ISMAEL: We will say it. We will also say that the extra weight did not fall from the sky.
NORA: We approved it.
ISMAEL: Do you maintain that the car did not choose a person?
NORA: I maintain that it did not assess anyone's moral worth.
ISMAEL: That is not the same question.
NORA: No.
ISMAEL: Answer it.
[Nora looks over the three lines frozen on the screen.]
NORA: The N-44 chose a manoeuvre that directed the impact towards Omar.
ISMAEL: Did that choice depend on a fleet policy?
NORA: Yes.
ISMAEL: Can you sign it?
NORA: If you add the perception errors and the alternatives.
ISMAEL: They are already added.
NORA: Let me read the closing.
[Reading of the joint opinion.]
NORA: Change "target" to "detected person". The first word sounds military.
ISMAEL: Done.
NORA: Change "saved the passenger". We do not know she would have died.
ISMAEL: I will put "reduced the calculated risk to the passenger".
NORA: Correct.
ISMAEL: Last line.
NORA: That one does not go in the record. I will say it.
ISMAEL: Go ahead.
NORA: "The fleet protected the passenger and put Omar in front of the bumper."