Audriana was beyond shocked at what her dad disclosed to her when she went to her parent's place the other night. Countless thoughts went through her head as she thought about what exactly could have gone wrong to cause this issue to be this bad.
She was in her office at the university when she remembered their conversation in his study.
… Flashback of the other night …
“What about the company?” she asked her dad who looked sad.
Kingsley sighed “Remember the Kindswel’s Motor new feature that we have been beta testing in the market for a while?” he asked and she nods her head.
It was a self-driving feature they were working on for their main target which was those with low vision or the blind so that instead of seeking a driver, with the easy-to-use speech-to-text feature, they can send their cars on errands like grocery shopping and the kinds to make things easier for them generally.
“While running the last part of the testing, there was a failure in the machine and it went bad, and almost got a tester killed” she gasped when he said that.
“Is the person okay?”
“Thankfully, yes but…” he looked stressed as he spoke about it.
“But what dad?”
“The family of the tester was mad and pressed charges, so instead of Kindswel’s Motor to take all the blame, they pushed it onto us and removed the funding they put to push the project forward or to even pay for damages,” he told her.
“So, we have to pay for damages and compensate the tester’s family? How about our remaining pay for the project? Was it made since their last payment?” she asked.
“No dear, he said that everything will be paid once it works perfectly without any flaws, and now this”
This was heartbreaking to hear but she didn’t want to give in a chance to grieve their loss but tried to think of what next step to take.
“Okay, was there an agreement that should expect them to fully fund the project regardless of how it turns out? It’s a new strategy to get businesses like Kindswel’s Motor who like leaving companies like ours hanging after a failed project. They brought up the idea and knew how much of a risk it was even with our countless advice on not pushing it too fast” she told her dad.
He had a pained look on his face and from reading his expression, she knew they didn’t apply such a strategy when signing with this business.
We will implement this strategy in future projects, don’t think too much about it” she tries to assure him.
“I don’t think we would be in this stage if I went for that strategy Ana,” he sighs and buried his face in his palm.
She held his hand and made him look at her “Don’t blame yourself, things are bound to not work but that isn’t our fault, we just need to learn from the mistake and move on”
“What are we going to do with what is on the ground? We already paid for the damages and compensated the victim’s family, we are going bankrupt since we already ran out of funds for the other projects we are working on” he informed her.
“Hmm, before it was to be tested finally, did you guys work on the feedback you got from the first three tests before letting the real tester use it?” she asked trying to think of more possible solutions to the problem.
“There was no feedback from the testing before this one, it was all good and we decided to just push it forward,” he said.
“I am asking just in case we might be interviewed by reporters or the tech investigators, so we know what to tell them and know the exact cause of it” she said.
“You’re right, I didn’t think of them at all. My mind was just occupied with all that was going on”
“We need to think about them also, they are good but can be very terrible, especially in cases like this, we don’t want to lose our remaining investors, right?” she asked and Kingsley winced at that
“About that” Kingsley gave her an apologetic look “Most of our major investors saw that and decided to take off their investment and then sell their part of the business cheaply, thankfully we were able to get those parts to ourselves but we are still broke” he explained.
“This is terrible dad” she commented.
“I’m sorry” he apologized.
“Please dad, don’t apologize, it’s nobody’s fault. We will find a way to get out of this mess” she looked at him and offered him a smile, which he weakly returned “I am currently out of ideas but I will let you know when something pops up, please don’t think too much about it”
“Thank you, dear, I knew you’ll have a solution to it”
“Yeah, ask our engineers to get to work and they should get to the root of this, something seems off somewhere but we will get it soon” he nods and she stood to her feet when a thought went through her mind “Mum knows about this?” she asked to be sure.
“No, I didn’t tell her anything”
“Please, let it remain that way, you know how she gets with news like this? Just let it be between us for now, please”
“Sure, I will do so”
… End of the flashback …
She was so lost in her thinking bubble that she didn’t realize Philip was now standing in front of her and snapping his fingers with a worried look on his face. She frowned as she thought about how he got inside her office and what he was saying.
“How did you get in?” she shook her head when she asked.
“I kept knocking and when I didn’t get an answer, I opened your door only to meet you lost in thought, tell me…” he sat down and leaned forward with his arms resting on her table “What’s the issue?” he asked and she shook her head once more.
“It’s nothing, Philip… I was just… uh…” she trailed off, not having an idea of what to say. Philip looked expectant of her reply “I was just thinking about this bug that I have been trying to solve for a while now” she said to him.
The issue they had at hand was a bug they needed to solve as soon as possible.
“You sure?” Philip didn’t seem convinced of that but he knew that she faced bugs as a developer.
She smiled and then nods her head.
“A hundred percent” she confirmed.
Philip watched her for some seconds before letting out a sigh and choosing to leave it since she already assured him.
“I believe you then, are we still up for Friday evening?” he asked and she nods in response.
“Sure, we are” she confirms for him and he grinned.
“Okay then, I’ll catch you later” he winked and made his way out of her office. She let out a sigh and rest her head on her table.