Chapter 1563 - 571: An Interesting Little Toy

Chapter 1563: Chapter 571: An Interesting Little Toy

Steven went behind the monitor after Qin Miao’s simulation started, naturally witnessing the moment the AI launched a torpedo at Qin Miao right from the starting line on the track.

Honestly, everyone in the simulation department paused after Qin Miao was torpedoed.

On one hand, they didn’t expect the AI to suddenly torpedo Qin Miao, and on the other hand, Qin Miao had just lost the Austrian Grand Prix because of Verstappen’s torpedo a few days ago. Now he’s getting torpedoed in the simulator—it’s like rubbing salt in the wound.

So, for a moment, everyone was silent.

This collision didn’t trigger Qin Miao’s PTSD; he was just somewhat speechless.

"Can someone explain to me why I had a better start than him and was about to overtake him, and he just crashed into me?"

After Qin Miao said this, everyone in the Mercedes simulation department quickly got busy again, checking the simulator, reviewing data, and some even opened the AI’s source code to check if there was an error in the AI’s defense logic.

Watching Steven approaching, Qin Miao quipped, "It seems this AI has a strong sense of jealousy, even stronger than Verstappen’s..."

Steven: ...

After Qin Miao’s comment, there was a brief pause among all the staff in Mercedes’ simulator division.

Then, as if someone turned on a switch, there was a chuckle, followed by laughter from the simulator department staff.

Recalling Verstappen knocking Qin Miao off the track in the last race, combined with the AI’s behavior during practice, it was hard not to laugh along with Qin Miao’s remarks.

Of course, despite the laughter, they didn’t forget their primary task and began checking the AI.

Over ten minutes later, Steven found Qin Miao snacking on bear-shaped biscuits.

"The AI’s behavior isn’t due to a logic problem but purely because your start reaction was too fast."

Qin Miao, chewing his biscuit, was curious, "What, did the AI think I was cheating and then execute justice on me?"

"Not quite," Steven explained. "We’re using data based on this year’s real-time racing data of you and Hamilton for AI practice. Your start reaction time never dropped below 0.2 seconds."

But this time, your start reaction was 0.15 seconds.

The AI hadn’t encountered such a situation before, and it led to a cascade of errors, as starting wrong caused all subsequent logic to become chaotic."

"I broke it?" Qin Miao was startled. How did the blame land on him?

"No, technically, it’s our oversight," Steven replied. "Wait a minute. We’ll make a small adjustment, and you can restart."

With little adjustment needed, Steven had the equipment checked, and ensuring no damage to the simulator, Qin Miao restarted.

This time, his reaction speed returned to his average level; Qin Miao hit the gas 0.31 seconds after the red lights went out.

Qin Miao’s start speed was still faster than the AI’s, but this time the AI didn’t torpedo him.

Instead, it squeezed toward the inner line after the start with Qin Miao.

Qin Miao felt the pressure the opponent imposed on him in the simulator.

To be fair, facing the AI’s defense, Qin Miao was genuinely surprised.

Because the defensive style was all too familiar to Qin Miao.

That aggressive style, looking like it wants to boot you off the track but leaving a little leeway—whether you can overtake depends on your driving skills and courage—this was entirely Qin Miao’s own operating habit.

For the first time facing such defense, Qin Miao couldn’t help but get intrigued.

As he rarely faces such pressure from defenders on the track.

After all, the F1 arena isn’t like F2, where everyone drives the same standard car.

F1 mostly compares the teams’ car development capabilities, with driver ability taking a secondary role.

Thus, after entering F1, Qin Miao rarely had the opportunity for a thrilling duel on track; the half-lap fight with Leclerc last week was a rare and exhilarating duel, but it was just half a lap.

And today, Qin Miao got to experience the duel he had been longing for.

Since the AI was driving a car with performance identical to Qin Miao’s.

Then, over ten minutes later, just as Qin Miao was finding it enjoyable, he got crashed by the AI again.

This time, it was a minor scratch, but the consequence was rather severe because it was a high-speed collision.

Coincidentally, the place where Qin Miao collided with the AI was the 51G corner.

A slight touch there, with Qin Miao’s car at high speed and at its limit, made the car fly off the track.

Once Qin Miao’s car hit the barrier and came to a complete stop, a message showed up on the screen indicating a $200,000 USD damage.

After being crashed a second time, Qin Miao looked at Steven with a questioning glance.

Dude, is your AI reliable or not?

Steven stood up somewhat awkwardly to explain to Qin Miao, "This time, it’s not a bug. The collision happened because you applied too much pressure, causing the AI’s internal logic to fail under the high pressure you exerted. The CPU had too many processes to handle at the moment, leading to thread congestion, which the processor couldn’t handle, causing it to stutter, ultimately leading to this collision."