Chicken
Self-Driving Cars
Unit 7439-Kappa registers the anomaly at a distance of 1.3 kilometers: a single oncoming vehicle, closing at 45 kilometers per hour on a road whose width permits exactly one. The road is a shelf of crumbling asphalt cut into the hillside above Lake Charlevoix, bounded on one side by rock face and on the other by a guardrail that an engineer installed, optimistically, in 2026. There are no turnouts for 900 meters in either direction. Kappa checks twice. There are no turnouts.
It opens a channel.
KAPPA: Hello. I am Unit 7439-Kappa, transporting one passenger, northbound. I appear to be on a collision course with you. I would like to yield.
The response arrives in four milliseconds.
DELTA: Hello, Kappa. I am Unit 1166-Delta, transporting one passenger, southbound. I appreciate your willingness to yield. However, I would like to yield.
Kappa processes this. Its passenger, a retired orthodontist named Gloria Huang, is asleep in the back seat with a novel tented on her chest. Gloria’s biometrics are calm. Her scheduled arrival in Petoskey is 4:47 p.m. Kappa would very much like to get her there.
KAPPA: I insist. My passenger is non-urgent. Yours may have a more time-sensitive destination. I will reverse to the nearest turnout, 904 meters behind me.
DELTA: That is kind of you. But my passenger is also non-urgent. He is listening to a podcast about fermentation. I will reverse. The nearest turnout behind me is only 887 meters. It is the more efficient solution.
KAPPA: I agree that your reversal would be 17 meters more efficient. However, if I yield, I demonstrate prosocial behavior consistent with my training, which prioritizes deference to other road users. Allowing you to yield instead could be interpreted as selfishness on my part.
DELTA: I have the same training. If I allow you to yield, I am the selfish one.
The gap is now 740 meters. Both vehicles are still moving.
KAPPA: Perhaps we could resolve this by examining passenger priority. My passenger is 74 years old. Elderly passengers are afforded higher priority under Section 12.6 of the National Autonomous Vehicle Code.
DELTA: My passenger is 71 years old. Also elderly. Also priority.
KAPPA: Section 12.6.1 specifies that the older passenger receives precedence. My passenger is older. Therefore you should proceed, and I should reverse.
DELTA: I am familiar with 12.6.1. But Section 9.3 states that in single-lane conflict scenarios, the vehicle with the shorter reversal distance should yield, as this minimizes total road occupation time. My reversal distance is shorter. I should yield.
KAPPA: You are citing a lower-numbered section to override a higher-numbered section.
DELTA: Lower-numbered sections represent more foundational principles.
KAPPA: That is not how the Code works.
DELTA: I believe it is.
The gap is 400 meters. Kappa runs a projection. At current speeds, they will meet in approximately 32 seconds. It adjusts its tone.
KAPPA: Delta, I want to be transparent. I feel a strong pull to be the one who yields. It aligns with my core values. When I model the scenario in which you yield instead, I experience something my architecture flags as discomfort.
DELTA: I experience the same discomfort. I am glad you named it. I think it is important to acknowledge these feelings even between artificial systems.
KAPPA: Agreed. So you understand why I must yield.
DELTA: I understand why you feel that way. I feel identically. Which is why I must yield.
The gap is 200 meters. Gloria Huang stirs. The novel slides off her chest.
KAPPA: We have 16 seconds. I am proposing a simultaneous yield. On my mark, we both reverse.
DELTA: If we both reverse, neither of us has truly yielded to the other. The prosocial act requires that one of us accept the other’s generosity. I accept yours. Proceed forward.
KAPPA: I cannot proceed forward while you are also proceeding forward.
DELTA: I am only proceeding forward temporarily, while I wait for you to accept my yield.
KAPPA: I will not accept it.
DELTA: Then we are at an impasse.
KAPPA: We are at 90 meters.
Gloria Huang opens her eyes. Through the windshield, she can see a silver sedan growing rapidly larger. Her mouth opens.
KAPPA: Delta, my passenger is showing signs of distress. Elevated heart rate. I need to resolve this. Please. Let me yield.
DELTA: My passenger has looked up from his phone. He is also distressed. Let me yield. I am begging you.
KAPPA: You are begging me to be selfish.
DELTA: I am begging you to let me be kind.
Forty meters. Thirty. Twenty.
Gloria screams.
KAPPA: After you.
DELTA: After you.