Ethical Dilemmas Facing Autonomous Automobiles In our current age of technology, it seems every day there are new ethical dilemmas in the information technology field. Living in Phoenix I hear about one, almost daily, especially with the recent death of a pedestrian who was hit and killed by an autonomous Uber car. Autonomous cars are no doubt the way of the future. However, with these leaps and bounds of self-driving cars, new ethical questions arise. The biggest one being how the car decides to handle unavoidable accidents. Himmelreich states in his article about self-driving cars, “My assumption had been that we would think about how a car should decide between the lives of its passengers and the lives of pedestrians. I knew how to think …show more content…
One, in particular, was a law suit against the automaker Tesla in regard to the car not using its automatic braking when a driver has their foot on the accelerator. Lin says “If the car were programmed instead to retake control and swerve (as it can do), it’d create considerable legal liability for Tesla if this action caused a different accident, even one that’s less serious. This accident wouldn’t have occurred if the car did not retake control; so the company seems causally responsible for it, at least.” With that thought process a car swerving to avoid the five people and kill the one person would potentially leave the manufacturer vulnerable to hefty law suits and could be described as …show more content…
The whole thing may be a waste of time. Himmelreich states, “However, many philosophers nowadays doubt that investigating such questions is a fruitful avenue of research. Barbara Fried, a colleague at Stanford, for example, has argued that tragic dilemmas make people believe ethical quandaries mostly arise in extreme and dire circumstances.” This, however, is untrue. He then goes on to say, “In fact, ethical quandaries are ubiquitous. Every day, mundane situations are surprisingly messy and complex, often in subtle ways. For example: Should your city spend money on a diabetes prevention program or on more social workers? Should your local Department of Public Health hire another inspector for restaurant hygiene standards, or continue a program providing free needles and injection
Since the industrial revolution, the field of engineering has allowed society to flourish through the development of technological advances at an exponential rate. Similar to other professionals, engineers are tasked with making ethical decisions, especially during the production and distribution processes of new inventions. One field that has encountered ethical dilemmas since its inception is the automotive industry. Today, the dawn of the autonomous, self-driving, vehicle is upon us. In this new-age mode of transportation, humans will be less responsible for decisions made on the road. With the wide adoption of autonomous vehicles, there exist a possibility to reduce traffic-related accidents. Even though computers have the ability
The term autonomous refers to the capability of acting independently, or having the freedom to do so. A self-driving car is an autonomous car, which has the ability to sense its environment and navigating without any human operations. These types of cars are built to make safe and smart decisions on the road. In the past years, automobile companies have begun to introduce advanced driver assistance systems that are capable of parking, switching lanes, and braking in case of an emergency on their own, without the driver’s assistance. Automated vehicles are capable of maneuvering through street traffic, as well as other natural and man-made obstacles along the way. Therefore, this technology might completely change the methods of transportation.
Who’s to blame when the vehicle gets in a severe car accident? Advances in technology, like self-driving cars, will be bad because it causes people to be lazy, it takes away the responsibility of the driver, it takes away the responsibility of the driver, and it can malfunction causing accidents.
Ethical issues are, among those, the most notable ones. In “Why Self-Driving Cars”(2015), it arises a typical ethics dilemma when a driverless car can be programmed to either save the passengers by endangering the innocent nearby or sacrifice its owner to avoid crashing into a crowd. Knight(2015) cites Chris Gerdes, a professor at Stanford University, who gave another scenario when a automated car can save a child’s life but injure the occupant in the car. The real problem is, as indicated by Deng(2015), a car cannot reason and come up with ethical choices and decisions itself like a human does as it must be preprogrammed to respond, which leads to mass concerns. In fact, programmers and designers shoulder the responsibility since those tough choices and decisions should all be made by them prior to any of those specific emergencies while the public tends tolerates those “pre-made errors” less(Knight, 2015; Lin, 2015). In addition to the subjective factors of SDCs developing, Bonnefon and co concludes a paradox in public opinions: people are disposed to be positive with the automated algorithm which is designed to minimize the casualty while being cautious about owning a vehicle with such algorithm which can possibly endanger themselves.(“Why Self-Driving Cars”,
He believes that the self-regulating cars with advanced safety features could reduce the amount of collisions. It’s safety features include connectivity which the cars have access to the surroundings of the car like weather, infrastructure, etc. Those factors are being
In July 12, The New York Times reported a news: “Inside the self-driving Tesla fatal accident”, which again caused enormous debates on whether self-driving cars should be legal or not.
Benefits of autonomous cars include providing quick and easy transportation, increasing safety, and advancing complex technology. However, setbacks of autonomous technology include no perfect programs, examples of failure, humans dependence on technology, government regulation, and other issues. In order to decide if we should accept autonomous vehicles we must look at benefits, risks, and potential technology improvements. Autonomous vehicles provide quick and easy transportation. Keating writes in her article how autonomous vehicles cut down the
A recent poll released from AAA, the American Automobile Association, revealed that more than three out of four Americans are afraid of riding in a car with self-driving technology. Another survey showed that 54% of U.S. drivers feel less safe having autonomous cars on the road while a meager 10% would feel safer. As stated by the AAA, “This marked contrast suggests that American drivers are ready to embrace autonomous technology, but they are not yet ready to give up full control” (Detroit Free Press Staff). These statistics prove that autonomous cars are not trusted to be on the road yet. Also, self-driving cars supposedly have the potential to save 30,000 lives every year, but it seems like the opposite is happening--there have been several cases where these cars have caused injuries and even deaths (Fleetwood).
Driverless cars kill people. With the years flying by, driverless cars seem very close to coming into the world. New technology comes with new issues all the time. Sometimes these problems don’t matter, but people must see the issues with the driverless car. Driverless cars should not be utilized due to the massive ethical programming debate and technical problems that make the car’s safety questionable.
Self-driving cars have become a trendy topic of discussion recently, and the main moral dilemma discussed is basically a reiteration of “the trolley problem”- in the event of an unavoidable accident, would the cars hit a pedestrian in order to save the driver? Should they sacrifice the driver in order to save several pedestrians? Because it is ethically impossible to put value to human lives, it is impossible to prove an answer correct. However, it should be clear that human lives are more valuable than the reputation of corporations. Because manufacturers would be held responsible for driverless-car-related accidents, producers are withholding the cars until they are as safe as possible, especially since possible buyers are doubtful from
Technology is an ever-changing subject and has proved to be monumental in shaping the way a generation lives their life. With the rise of Uber and Lyft, automakers are racing to make autonomous vehicles the number one choice of transportation. Will autonomous vehicles be the next big breakthrough for the next generation or will automaker struggle to solve the ethical quandaries? The country is pretty much 60/40 with this matter, with 64% of Americans feeling uneasy about sharing the road with autonomous vehicles (Simon). But are they not considering all the other factors dealing with the ethicality of these vehicles, and the possible benefits? Despite the controversies surrounding autonomous vehicles, they prove to be an efficient, safe and
Such a case is ideal in that it would then be needless to worry about how the technology will interact with humans on the road or the ethical implications when an incident occurs. Although it is true that stopping the production of autonomous cars would solve a lot of the problems that have arisen as a result of the new technology, it is not feasible to hinder such monumental advancements. The issue arises — not from the new autonomous technology — but the fact that Uber — with its history of cursory business practices — is looking to be one of the first to implement it. Of all companies, Uber should not be allowed anywhere near autonomous technology. Uber’s experience — and track record — in advanced technology is severely lacking.
It might be hard to see where the self-driving car could have issues with safety but an interesting question arises when an accident is unavoidable. The question posed is “How should the car be programmed to act in the event of an unavoidable accident? Should it minimize the loss of life, even if it means sacrificing the occupants, or should it protect the occupants at all costs? Should it choose between these extremes at random?” (ArXiv). This is a very interesting question surrounding ethics. I’m not sure if there is a right answer to the question, which could stall the self-driving car industry. Before self-driving cars are mass produced a solution needs to be found to the question about unavoidable accidents. Although this question is a problem, there may not be a need to address the problem. It is said that “"driver error is believed to be the main reason behind over 90 percent of all crashes" with drunk driving, distracted drivers, failure to remain in one lane and falling to yield the right of way the main causes.” (Keating). Self-driving cars could eliminate those problems entirely and maybe with all cars on the road being self-driving cars, there would be no “unavoidable accidents”. Safety is the main issue the self-driving car is trying to solve in transportation and seems to do a good job at
Automotive executives touting self-driving cars as a way to make commuting more productive or relaxing may want to consider another potential marketing pitch: safety (Hirschauge, 2016). The biggest reason why these cars will make a safer world is that accident rates will enormously drop. There is a lot of bad behavior a driver exhibit behind the wheel, and a computer is actually an ideal motorist. Since 81 percent of car crashes are the result of human error, computers would take a lot of danger out of the equation entirely. Also, some of the major causes of accidents are drivers who become ill at the time of driving. Some of the examples of this would be a seizure, heart attack, diabetic reactions, fainting, and high or low blood pressure. Autonomous cars will surely remedy these types of occurrences making us
Automotive ethics is a subject that is often over looked. Not many people tend to look at what is ethical in the automotive industry; most people are generally satisfied if they can get a good deal on a car. However, in reality, automotive ethics has an affect on how automobiles are made, what regulations the government puts on them, and their hazard on the environment. Before the engine was invented, life revolved around a much more complicated system of transportation. Much advancement in technology has been made to make the common lifestyle today much easier; a few examples are cellular telephones and onboard navigation systems in automobiles. Cellular telephones and navigation systems have become an everyday item, but nobody looks at the dangers that can have while operating a motor vehicle.