[SystemSafety] fyi: IEEE article about ethics in driverless cars

[paul_e.bennett at topmail.co.uk]

On 09/07/2016 at 1:48 AM, "Les Chambers" <les at chambers.com.au> wrote:
>
>Michael
>
>The most telling paragraph in this article is Karl Iagnemma's 
>statement:
>
>"As of today, we don’t have any procedure for what we would 
>commonly think of as ethical decision making. I’m not aware of any 
>other group that does either. I think the topic is a really 
>important one. It’s a question that’s very important to pose, but 
>it’s going to take a while for us to converge to a technical 
>solution for it. We’d love to be able to address that question 
>today, but we just don’t have the technology."
>
>I don't know Karl and I may be doing him a disservice but this 
>just sounds like the words of a technocrat without a classical 
>education. The problem isn't technical, it's intensely human. Just 
>the act of conducting a survey about preferences for trolley 
>problem outcomes seems misguided. Giving any credibility to the 
>outcome: "76% of participants thought that it would be more moral 
>for AVs to sacrifice one passenger rather than kill 10 
>pedestrians. " is a nonsense. 

Some of that viewpoint may be seen in terms of the vehicle passenger,
just by getting in the vehicle, has agreed to a contract for conveyance 
and accepted the risk that the vehicle may have to make such decision 
at some point.

On the other hand, the pedestrian has not been made aware that such
a risk exists as they would not know if the vehicle approaching was in
autonomous mode or not. The only risk they have accepted is the 
normal one for pedestrians intermingling with road traffic generally. 

Then again, passengers in vehicles are always more protected than
the average pedestrian.

Regards

Paul E. Bennett IEng MIET
Systems Engineer

-- 
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