The Ethics of Self-Driving Cars

Almost all automobile manufacturers today incorporate some level of AI into their vehicles, ranging from blind spot information systems, to rear cross traffic alerts, to adaptive cruise control, to full on autonomous behavior (what NHTSA refers to as a level 5 driverless vehicle). In the case of the latter, what happens when the vehicle is faced with an ethical dilemma? Imagine a child chases a ball into on-coming traffic where catastrophe is unavoidable. In this variation of the classic trolley problem, does the vehicle sacrifice its occupants for the child, or vice versa. For instance, let’s say there are four adults in the car. Are those four lives worth more than that of a single child? From a human perspective, running over a child is unthinkable, regardless of the math. But according to utilitarianism, the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. While this is currently an academic argument, it will soon be a real-world conundrum. <a href="https://medium.com/the-modern-scientist/the-ethics-of-ai-and-self-driving-cars-3980673d7389">Learn More</a>