Most people thought of cars as mechanical beasts. They saw the pistons, the oil, the tires. But Elliot knew the truth. A modern car was just a network. It was a rolling server farm. Every time the ignition turned, a hundred mini-computers woke up, talking to each other in a language of binary code via the Controller Area Network—the CAN bus.
He gets out. Walks into the dark. And the engine starts again. On its own.