Self driving cars: the moral dilemma

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Stratman

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Imagine a robo-ride is about to crash into either a kid or a bunch of elderly people. It cannot brake in time, nor swerve out of the way. Where should it go? Who should it hit, or rather, who should it spare?

*Thanks to researchers from MIT and Harvard University in the US, University of British Columbia in Canada, and the Université Toulouse Capitole in France, we have an answer, and it's not good news if you're old, poor, male or fat.

*A short and interesting read from The Register, where as per usual the comments are as good as the article itself. As an example, here is the first one;

"In the time a human driver goes OH F*** <bump>...
Your average self-driving car will have time to run face-recognition,
browse thru your credit record & rating on social networks??"
 
And in that nano second, can the car distinguish between the ill, the well, the young, the elderly, the fat, the thin, the thick......I think it’s got some way to go yet.

I wonder if you can buy a self driving car and insure and use it, if you have no driving licence?

Would you still have to be 17 to use the vehicle?

Could a rich 12 year old get a Tesla for Xmas and use it?

What of driverless taxis? - can a 12 year old use one?

It seems that Asimovs’ laws of robotics will be with us sooner than we thought, and may require caveats in some situations!
 
Imagine a robo-ride is about to crash into either a kid or a bunch of elderly people. It cannot brake in time, nor swerve out of the way. Where should it go? Who should it hit, or rather, who should it spare?

*Thanks to researchers from MIT and Harvard University in the US, University of British Columbia in Canada, and the Université Toulouse Capitole in France, we have an answer, and it's not good news if you're old, poor, male or fat.

*A short and interesting read from The Register, where as per usual the comments are as good as the article itself. As an example, here is the first one;

"In the time a human driver goes OH F*** <bump>...
Your average self-driving car will have time to run face-recognition,
browse thru your credit record & rating on social networks??"

Bloomin heck I’m doomed cause I’m all of those.

Robin
 
I wonder if you can buy a self driving car and insure and use it, if you have no driving licence?

Would you even need to insure it as you're not driving it, maybe the manufacturers should insure all cars they sell as it there software driving the car and in the instance of an accident they should be held liable.

It would certainly push them to develope better software or hardware faster if they had to payout in the event of an accident.
 
Imagine a driverless car in a sinkhole council estate, or in a gang-ruled American inner city ghetto.

How long do you think they'll last?
 
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Imagine a driverless car in a sinkhole council estate, or in a gang-ruled American inner city ghetto.

How long do you think they'll last?
Sounds like they'd do ok as they are programmed to run over poor, badly fed people.
 
Imagine a robo-ride is about to crash into either a kid or a bunch of elderly people. It cannot brake in time, nor swerve out of the way. Where should it go? Who should it hit, or rather, who should it spare?

I suspect that anybody actually programming these things will just go by numbers.

So if swerving left is likely to injure 2 but keeping straight is likely to injure 1 then you keep going straight.

There's a lots of theory and hype about what you could do with self driving cars - but so far practical progress is more limited.

Starting with simpler stuff - do you prioritise the safety of the occupants over the safety of occupants in other vehicles or pedestrians. Do you allow people to choose a car which prioritises the safety of the occupants over and above everybody else?
 
As good or bad as they are, I cannot see driverless cars on our roads. Aircraft have been able to take off and land for a long time without pilots, but they are still up front.

Even worse case senario, the vehicle can brake in time but will cause injury to the passengers.

I think not in my lifetime.
 
As good or bad as they are, I cannot see driverless cars on our roads. Aircraft have been able to take off and land for a long time without pilots, but they are still up front.

There's been talk of reducing the cockpit crew to one.

The industry is conservative - people also don't like the idea of an aircraft without a captain - just as many don't like travelling on a train without a 'guard' ( who may be a train manager, conductor, or ticket examiner and not technically a guard).

Even worse case senario, the vehicle can brake in time but will cause injury to the passengers.

I think not in my lifetime.

I think the technology is over hyped - but that doesn't mean it won't be used in particular ways.

People focus on applying the technology to cars rather than commercial vehicles and on urban driving rather than trunk routes.

I think we will see some technology quite soon (5 to 10 years) - but it will be about road freight and operating on trunk routes.
 
^^^ I only discovered my local trains had guards when they started going on strike...
 
Are there any car manufacturers currently trialling the technology (other than Google, who are not actually a car manufacturer)?

The moral dilemma is very real, however I think it will be something that future generations will need to resolve, not our generation ... :(
 
^^^ I only discovered my local trains had guards when they started going on strike...

I always thought that guards thing was just the unions flexing their muscle (I remember having guards on the Tube up to around 20 years ago, when they were replaced with video monitors on the platform near the driver's cab) - until last month, when my wrist got caught in the doors, and the drivers just took off anyway without checking the video monitors... I managed to pull-out my wrist and it was sore for a week. Those doors have a strong bite! They grab you good and won't let go... luckily I wasn't wearing my wrist watch at the time so I managed to slide my hand back out using some force. But I did run a few steps along the moving train - not a great experience! A guard at the rear would have stopped the train. Or better still wouldn't clear it to go while my hand is stuck in the door!
 
This is pretty similar to the Trolley Problem - Trolley problem - Wikipedia

Essentially, if your self driving car is heading for a group of people, could you decide to swerve it into someone else and make the conscious decision to kill them for the greater good, or stay out of the whole thing and let the electronics take any blame.
 

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