The car is no longer a machine.
Everything is under the control of computer systems.
In a way, it is a computer that moves.

Once again, the engine wouldn’t start.
It seems the system has crashed.

I drove out to have dinner.
My stomach and my heart were both full,
and I was in a cheerful mood.
But when it was time to go home,
the car wouldn’t move.

Even when I pressed the start button,
there was no response at all.
The car remained silent.

The high-performance car
had become nothing more than an object.

Since it was delivered at the end of the year before last,
this trouble has happened time and again.
It appears to be another system error.

Once, I left it with the manufacturer
and had it thoroughly inspected and repaired.
And yet—
here we are again.

It is no longer something mechanics can handle.
What is needed is not tools,
but knowledge of systems.

There is nothing to do
but have it taken to the manufacturer,
connected to a server,
and examined from the inside.


I arranged for a tow truck to come the next day
and took a taxi home.
At least it was a parking lot
where I could leave the car until tomorrow—
that was my small relief.

The temperature was probably around minus five degrees Celsius.
A slightly warmer night than usual.

Good grief.

Like the car in the old TV series Knight Rider,
it now greets me,
“Welcome back, Risu.”
If I tell it my destination, it sets the route.
If there is an obstacle,
the brakes engage automatically, even before I react.

Cars have become smarter.

But still, I wonder.
In return,
it feels as though we have gained
more moments of standing still, unable to move.

Who knows what will happen next.