She climbed into the pod and tapped the destination: The vehicle slid into traffic without a jolt. At the first pothole, the VCU softened the suspension by 40%. When an ambulance blared behind them, it pulled over smoothly—then rejoined with surgical precision.
Dr. Mira Sen stood in the drizzling rain at the edge of the autonomous depot, tablet in hand. Above her, a gantry crane was lowering a battered yellow passenger pod onto a fresh skateboard chassis. The sign on the depot wall read:
“Lowering sequence complete,” the depot AI announced. “Pod: Type M9 Medical. Base: Type C3 Cargo.”
Then Mira’s team at App2Go released the 2.0.