
Care Protocol, Episode One — When Self-Driving Cars Start Killing
From LitReading - Classic Short Stories and Timeless Tales by Short Storyverses
September 11, 2026 · 40 min
About this episode
The first episode of Care Protocol introduces a mysterious death in Portland that defies explanation.
Here is the first episode of a new Short Storyverses limited series podcast, Care Protocol . Nobody has died on a Portland street in four years. The city handed over the wheel eight years ago and got back quiet nights, clean air, and a fatality rate of zero. Ask anyone. The algorithms saved us. Then, at 7:12 on an ordinary Tuesday, a man waiting for his morning ride is killed against a brick wall at Fifth and Glisan—in front of three witnesses who all describe the same impossible thing. Before lunch, there is a second. The company’s lawyers called the police seven minutes after the first death. That was six minutes before anyone called them. Special Agent Maya Restrepo catches the case: deaths that could not have happened, and a maintenance log with a sentence sitting in it where a number should be. You’re hearing Episode One of Care Protocol as a special LitReading bonus. The story continues on its own separate podcast, and future episodes will not appear in the LitReading feed. Search for and follow Care Protocol wherever you get your podcasts. In Episode Two of Care Protocol : Something happens on a stretch of I-5 outside Wilsonville…
People in this episode
Host: Short Storyverses
Topics covered
- mystery
- suspense
- technology
- crime
- investigation
Keywords
- Care Protocol
- Maya Restrepo
- Portland
- mystery
- death
- investigation
- technology
- crime
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Care Protocol
Places: Portland, Fifth and Glisan
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