Since the advent of autonomous technology, self-driving cars have been expected to be the best solution to optimizing daily commuting efficiency meanwhile significantly reducing or even preventing traffic accidents and fatality by rectifying and removing possible human errors on the road. As the deeper research goes on, however, the ethics of driverless cars become a major concern: self-driving cars must make their own decisions at any circumstances, which also means that such vehicles must be pre-programmed to respond ethically to certain emergencies. Concerning quite broad range of ethical issues, such algorithms should be rather convoluted. Without any perfect solutions so far, social expectation of ethical principles should be a logical …show more content…
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”,
Have you ever feared that your loved one or even someone very close to you will be involved in a fatal car accident every time they left the house? Drunk driving is a factor in nearly one-third of all fatal accidents. Even if you aren’t the one driving, you are still at risk any moment to get involved in an accident that could’ve been prevented. By legalizing fully self-driving cars, we won’t have to fear the pain of losing a loved one. We could have a quick fix to all of this madness easily. The number of traffic accidents are soaring at 1.3 million deaths a year. Drunk Driving is still one of the number one causes of vehicle deaths; therefore, the government should allow self-driving cars to become legal to combat the issue. If we don’t act now to combat this issue we will have to deal with the consequences it will bring.
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.
There are a huge number of details that need to be worked out. My first thought is to go with the utilitarian approach and minimize the loss of life and save the greatest number of people, but upon farther reflection I started to see the problems with it. The utilitarian approach is too simplistic. It raised all kinds of questions such as will the computer make any decisions as to fault when it makes the decision on what to do. For example, if I am in the car with my young child, and three eighty-year-old drunks wander out in front of my car because they are drunk by their own choice, is the car going to choose them over me and my child because there are three of them? I would not want the computer to make that decision for me because frankly I probably would not make that decision. That kind of computer decision would probably curtail many people including me from buying a self-driving car. It is the same paradox that MIT Review refers to when it says, “People are in favor of cars that sacrifice the occupant to save other lives—as long as they don’t have to drive one themselves” (“Why
Self-driving cars are now hitting a few roadways in America, and are showing people just a small glimpse into what could be the future of automobiles. Although Google’s self-driving cars are getting a lot of attention now, the idea of a self-driving car has been around for quite a while actually. These cars have been tested to their limits, but the American people have yet to adopt the technology into their everyday lives. A brief description of their history, how they work, and finally answer the question, will self-driving cars ever be adopted widely by the American public?
In source #3 paragraph 4 it says “surveyed people want to ride in cars that protect passengers at all costs-even if the pedestrians would now end up dying.” This is important because the self driving cars create a conflict between society, about who the car could save. Also those surveyed people are in conflict with themselves, trying to decide what outcome could be better. In source #3 paragraph 13 it states “people imagined actually buying a driverless car...people again said pedestrians-protecting cars were more moral...people admitted that they wanted their own car to be programmed to protect its passengers.” This shows when you actually think about the reality of having a driverless car, you wouldn’t want to die in an accident when you could have been saved. As a pedestrian you wouldn’t want to get hit by a car when you could have been saved. There are different perspectives you have to look at. In conclusion this shows that society still isn’t sure about a self-driving
While many people are all about autonomous cars and the benefits that they will bring to society, there are people who oppose driver less cars. Google has faced major censure from critics that are uneasy with the method that the automobile will u...
With the introduction of autonomous vehicles, various social dilemmas have arisen into the mainstream of debate. One of the biggest questions to come up is whether autonomous vehicles should be primarily utilitarian in nature, meaning that they reduce the total number of injuries and deaths on roadways as much as possible, or self-protective in nature, meaning that they protect the occupants of the vehicle no matter what, in every scenario. These two can't be mixed without causing unrest and debate on whether the correct decision was made by the vehicle; it has to be one or the other. However, when taking into account the primary purpose of developing autonomous vehicles, I believe that they should serve a utilitarian purpose, minimizing the
Subject Matter: This report will delve into the topic of driverless cars, and whether they can be an ethical, reliable and economic form transportation for us in the future. Background Problem: We will attempt to address surrounding issues of ethics and economic costs of these driverless vehicles. Will driverless vehicles be able to handle ethical issues of the road as well as human beings when the situation occurs? Also, will the perceived benefit of driverless cars outweigh their economical costs once created?
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 opponents would also against self-driving cars because of personal privacy. The obvious point is that, if you use vehicles which is entirely control by a computer, your movements are extremely easy to be tracked by the company or a third party. Operating systems could be hacked, self-driving cars also do. Self-driving cars are facing with the serious privacy
Imagine a scenario in the near future where auto-driving cars are a common sight. People are familiar with machines making decision for them. Nobody questions the effectiveness of these machines. One day, a car is driving its occupant down a windy road, all of a sudden a child runs into the street. The car must now make a decision based on the instructions given to it upon creation. Does the car swerve and crash to miss the child, killing the passenger? Or does it kill the child to save the passenger? This is an ethical problem that has been debated for many years. Ever since the first work into artificial intelligence. When we create intelligent machines which are able to make decisions on their own, it is inevitable that decisions unfavorable
Self-driving cars are the wave of the future. There is much debate regarding the impact a self-driving car will have on our society and economy. Some experts believe fully autonomous vehicles will be on the road in the next 5-10 years (Anderson). This means a vehicle will be able to drive on the road without a driver or any passengers. Like any groundbreaking technology, there is a fear of the unforeseen problems. Therefore, there will need to be extensive testing before anyone can feel safe with a vehicle of this style on the road. It will also take time for this type of technology to become financially accessible to the masses, but again alike any technology with time it should be possible. Once the safety concern has been fully addressed
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.