How It All Went Wrong
By the turn of the 2080s, Earth’s total population had grown almost threefold compared to the 2010s to 2020s.
So did the Federation of the Contiguous United States, or as people call it “CONUS.” Mass influx of refugees flooded from every region of the world ravaged greatly by The Bloodiest War: Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Within that war, the Federation lost Alaska to Russia, Cuba took over Puerto Rico, and Hawaii, Guam, and its other Pacific territories became independent countries more aligned with the rising power of Australia across the Pacific Ocean.
Traffic Hell
As cities across the Federation expanded and branched in all directions, so did the Interstates as it grew wider to twelve lanes to accommodate higher volumes of traffic.
This in turn crippled the effectiveness of the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) in implementing traffic regulation at the time.
Traffic congestion rates have grown exponentially as unprecedented mass waves of migrants flooded the country up to the point the Federation could not sustain properly anymore . Almost every second, every news outlet lost count of the brutal accidents as a result of unchecked driving behavior in every part of the country. Speed cameras, highway patrols, fines, and suspensions all meant nothing, as people now only treat penalties as background noises.
The Solution
As a result, different proposals have been offered one-by-one, all of which proved futile. Then a working solution was found, from a world beyond ours.
Therefore, by 2085 in Havenport Concords, the capital of the Federation of CONUS, the ‘Continental Urban Stability Accords’ was created to finally solve the problem with reckless driving. Within these accords, the government struck an outlandish deal with beings from a civilization of mechanical wonders to develop the necessary technology needed to combat traffic congestion and reckless driving, unmatched by man-made patents.
The USDOT and all its branches including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration were purged and dissolved under the orders of the Federation.
The Continental Road Transit Authority (CRTA)
For this program to be executed successfully, the Continental Road Transit Authority was born, attempting to learn from the failures of the old USDOT.
Under heavy oversight of this organization, a golden-plated Autonomous Intellectual Core Processor, obtained from those “beings”, was installed on every registered car on the road, regardless of make, model, or shape. The device was designed to monitor every individual’s behavior on the wheel strictly.
These sentient “machines” had forewarned the side effects of those exotic devices on every person’s vehicle towards legislators in the council .
The contracts had been signed nonetheless, thus sealing the fate of millions taking the ever-stretching highways within the glimmering spires of Havenport Concords.
The System
To the higher authorities of the city, it was called Dynamic Safety Integration. The lower civilians simply named it “The Voice”.
It only mattered now who was going to break the new traffic laws next.
The system did not only monitor speed limits. It also tracked down intent through acceleration and deceleration patterns, reaction times, lane aggression, proximity risks, and prior recorded behavior.
It warned the person to always drive wisely at all times, and it mostly worked as the program successfully reduces the number of accidents in 2085 compared to what it was a year or even decades ago.
Every infraction added to a Driver’s Stability Index or DSI, capped at twelve points. Smaller violations faded with time or could be reduced through state -sanctioned driving courses. Even affluent people can buy their way out of the Index in a designated Customs Office.
The system was endorsed as fair for everyone, yet almost no one dwelt on what would happen next when the counter struck twelve.
Once the Counter Struck Twelve…
Once the DSI counted to twelve full-stop, the driver would be red-flagged by authorities under a system they called ‘Behavioral Risk Classification’. License suspension of such offenders was only the beginning. Instead of being jailed in a simple prison, they get detained and confined in a ‘correctional facility’ beyond the borders of Havenport.
The vehicle itself was under government custody, because the Continental Road Transit Authority co-owned the ride as a result of the installed off-world hardware.
The Apex Redline: The Race & Its Rules
For the convicted drivers to redeem themselves faster, the authorities presented them with another option, where they would partake into a racing tournament program called on screens as Apex Redline.
This was not like F1, NASCAR, or Indy 500 anymore. This was far more brutal than anyone could comprehend, making demolition derbies back in those old days look tame.
As the tournament commenced, participants would be left in sheer shock as they realized they would be driving their own confiscated vehicles, each given a “cosmetic makeover” of exotic colors, wheels, and bodykits. Engines were pushed beyond their factory limit, all ready to hit the tracks.
The drivers thought they could handle the cars like they usually did back on normal roads, but they would be mistaken gravely.
The races would be held mostly in urban environments – places where guard railings act like safety barriers, street grids became track corners, and entire cities treated as race tracks. Even natural landscapes aren’t spared either, be it the mountain peaks of the Rockies or the dry sands of the Mojave. Every scenery was never safe from the oil and blood-stained hands of the CRTA.
Throughout the entire racing series, the ‘Voices’ of these cars guided, warned, and reassured their drivers in a soothing yet eerily human manner, too human even with Earth’s most advanced AI.
As the driver stepped in their own car, even for once, they never got to step out a second time, further adding misery to their already disgraced selves. The doors only open whenever a certain race is finished and they get cleared from the bottom-most ranking.
The Judgment
If the driver did hit the lowest ranking possible, their car gets towed and thrown into a crusher, as well as dragging down the very driver with it, bracing their short yet brutal end, in front of everyone watching.
The season only finished when only one stood alive. Only one would make it through.
The lone victor would have his entire Index cleared to naught, and his license returned into his hands.
The Exploitations
The bombastic spectacle served a twisted form of deterrent and entertainment to every person watching.
This was the authorities’ way of saying “Look at how we can punish those who stopped caring about our traffic laws, and if anyone dared to lift a hand and question our methods, they’ll be in a rude awakening and become like the participants on the tracks!”.
The authorities really feared that one individual would expose their experimentation of alien tech on cars, all for the name of keeping traffic crash-free.
About the Author
Jose Enrique Villacorta Joson is a graduate of Senior High School from Bulacan Ecumenical School under the STEM branch. He started his journey in the Bubots Writing Class last November 2025 in the Advanced Class. Today, Jose strives to further improve his writing in the near future so that he may be able to pursue his dreams as a writer and an artist.