Autonomous Car Ethics: If a Crash Is Unavoidable, What Does It Hit? 800
An anonymous reader writes "Patrick Lin of California Polytechnic State University explores one of the ethical problems autonomous car developers are going to have to solve: crash prioritization. He posits this scenario: suppose an autonomous car determines a crash is unavoidable, but has the option of swerving right into a small car with few safety features or swerving left into a heavier car that's more structurally sound. Do the people programming the car have it intentionally crash into the vehicle less likely to crumple? It might make more sense, and lead to fewer fatalities — but it sure wouldn't feel that way to the people in the car that got hit. He says, '[W]hile human drivers may be forgiven for making a poor split-second reaction – for instance, crashing into a Pinto that's prone to explode, instead of a more stable object – robot cars won't enjoy that freedom. Programmers have all the time in the world to get it right. It's the difference between premeditated murder and involuntary manslaughter.' We could somewhat randomize outcomes, but that would lead to generate just as much trouble. Lin adds, 'The larger challenge, though, isn't thinking through ethical dilemmas. It's also about setting accurate expectations with users and the general public who might find themselves surprised in bad ways by autonomous cars. Whatever answer to an ethical dilemma the car industry might lean towards will not be satisfying to everyone.'"
It's simple (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Simple answer (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A bunch of nuns? (Score:5, Funny)
post a bug report.
Re:Undefined (Score:2, Funny)
if (aboutToCrash) {
log.error ("Oh shit!");
}
Re:A bunch of nuns? (Score:4, Funny)
Actually, this raises a more interesting question (at least to me) which your little thought experiment approaches. What if my autonomous car decides that the action to take that is likely to cause the least harm is to kill the driver? For example, what if the car has the opportunity to swerve off the side of a mountain road and drop you 1000 feet onto some rocks to avoid a crash that would have killed far more people than simply you? Is my autonomous car required to act in my own best interest, or should it act in the best interests of everyone on the road?
Your autonomous car? :-)
It will be a Google car. Partly paid by ads and data collected while used. As such it should - of course - behave in the best interest of the real costumers. I.e. not you! :)
Re:A bunch of nuns? (Score:2, Funny)
chopped up or whole? I'm thinking either way with a standard sedan you've just managed to end up on the less protected list.
We know how to deal with crashes. (Score:5, Funny)
Usually save the coredump and reboot the machine if necessary. Some clueless windows developers insist on powering off, power off the router, unplug the router and wait for the capacitors to discharge before rebooting them all.