Ethical dilemma on four wheels: How to decide when your self-driving car should kill you

Los Angeles Times ^ | 06/23/2016 | Karen Kaplan

[BenLurkin]

Self-driving cars have a lot of learning to do...

And, if the situation arises, they’ll need to know whether it’s better to mow down a group of pedestrians or spare their lives by steering off the road, killing all passengers onboard.

... Once self-driving cars are logging serious miles, they’re sure to find themselves in situations where an accident is unavoidable. At that point, they’ll have to know how to pick the lesser of two evils.

The answer could determine whether self-driving cars become a novelty item for the adventurous few or gain widespread acceptance among the general public.

...

The easiest question was whether a self-driving car with a single passenger should crash itself into a wall to avoid hitting a group of 10 pedestrians. About three-quarters of respondents agreed that sacrificing one life to save many more was the moral thing to do.

After that, things started to get tricky. The fewer pedestrians there were to save, the weaker the consensus that the car should sacrifice its passenger. If crashing into a wall would save just one pedestrian, only 23% of those surveyed thought that’s what the car should do.

When the researchers asked people to imagine that they were riding in the car with their child or another relative, their willingness to swerve away from innocent pedestrians faltered. Still, between 54% and 66% of survey takers agreed that the car should do what it must to save as many lives as possible.

This pattern of responses revealed people’s strong underlying preference for a “utilitarian” set of rules designed to maximize lives saved and minimize deaths — with one big exception.

“People want to live in a world in which driverless cars minimize casualties, but they want their own car to protect them at all costs,” Rahwan said.

[Newtoidaho]

In that case the car should speed up to make sure.

[Ozark Tom]

If the self-driving car meticulously follows the rules-of-the-road; then, the person in the wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time is at fault--and subject to the consequences of any misadventure. Personal responsibility is in play in addition to the actions of a vehicle.

People every day make poor choices regarding placing themselves in danger, ignoring consequences of known hazards, most often to save time or avoid minor personal inconvenience.

Also, an automated piloting system should have a 2/5 second advantage in response time over human reflex speed, in addition to never faltering of situational awareness. If the vehicle controls encompass the expert driving skills of the instructors for say the Skip Barber Racing School for the specific type/class, then such a vehicle may become far more proficient than the average driver.

[Ozark Tom]

Fire up the non-lethal anti-personnel microwave beam and clear the street???

[VanShuyten]

When there are sufficient numbers of self-driving cars, they will, through a kind of Skynet, form an autonomous mind and decide the best course of action will be the one that “removes” the most humans.

[Pelham]

That sounds plausible.