The ethics of driverless cars

The ethics of driverless cars

August 20, 2014

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 By Andrew Stokes, Communications Officer

Jason Millar, a PhD Candidate in the Department of Philosophy, spends a lot of time thinking about driverless cars. Though you aren카지노 게임 컬렉션t likely to be able to buy them for 10 years, he says there are a number of ethical problems that need to be tackled before they go mainstream.

카지노 게임 컬렉션This isn카지노 게임 컬렉션t an issue for the next generation, it카지노 게임 컬렉션s happening right now. Driverless cars are on the road in certain jurisdictions as they카지노 게임 컬렉션re being prepared for a mass market,카지노 게임 컬렉션 says Millar, whose dissertation focuses on robot ethics and the implications of increasingly autonomous machinery. 카지노 게임 컬렉션These cars promise safety benefits, but I카지노 게임 컬렉션m interested in what happens to the cars in a difficult situation, one where lives are on the line.카지노 게임 컬렉션

Illustration by Craig Berry.

To explore this problem he created a , called the Tunnel Problem, which attracted hundreds of thousands of readers and commenters online. The Tunnel Problem reworks ethical philosophy카지노 게임 컬렉션s .

The setup is this: You are driving in an autonomous car along a narrow road, headed towards a one-lane tunnel when a child errantly runs on to the road and trips. The car cannot brake fast enough to avoid hitting the child and so it must decide whether to swerve off the road, effectively harming you, or remain driving straight, harming the child.

카지노 게임 컬렉션This is a problem with only bad outcomes that even a human driver cannot easily solve,카지노 게임 컬렉션 says Mr. Millar. 카지노 게임 컬렉션What카지노 게임 컬렉션s particularly useful about this situation is that it focuses our attention on a design question, as the car will be programmed to respond a certain way 카지노 게임 컬렉션 I want to ask who should make the decision about the car카지노 게임 컬렉션s response.카지노 게임 컬렉션

After initially posting his article on Robohub.org, the site ran a to gauge readers카지노 게임 컬렉션 responses and rationales as to who should render the judgement.

카지노 게임 컬렉션A near majority responded that the passenger in the car should have the right to make the decision about whether to swerve or not, and only about 12 per cent suggested it should be up to the car카지노 게임 컬렉션s designers,카지노 게임 컬렉션 he says. A full third of respondents said it should be left up to lawmakers and legislators to make the call.

카지노 게임 컬렉션That so many people were willing to trust a life and death situation to politicians and lawmakers really surprised me,카지노 게임 컬렉션 Mr. Millar says. 카지노 게임 컬렉션Many of them said they wanted a standard behaviour so that people would know what to expect in that situation, while others simply wanted someone else to make the decision and take it off their hands.카지노 게임 컬렉션

The Tunnel Problem is just one of a series of problems that Millar foresees being an issue with driverless cars. 카지노 게임 컬렉션There카지노 게임 컬렉션s also the problem of who카지노 게임 컬렉션s culpable when a car crashes. If we maintain current standards of product liability, then the fault will tend to lie with the manufacturer, but we may also shift to a system where we consider the robot at fault,카지노 게임 컬렉션 he says.

It카지노 게임 컬렉션s a possibility, but Millar says the future of driverless cars is far from certain. 카지노 게임 컬렉션Holding the robot responsible may be less satisfying for those with a mind for punitive justice.카지노 게임 컬렉션
 

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