Ethical Issues Of Self Driving Car

Cars are now becoming much more aware and these cars are available to the general public. In 2005 there was a course for autonomous vehicles and no car completed a tenth of the course(Guerra). These cars can now park themselves, raise their wheels to avoid potholes, check if you are drifting out of your lane, check out your blind spots, they know if any object is behind you when you are backing up and most important Tesla released a car that could drive itself on highways. Eleven years ago cars like this were science fiction and in 20 years they might become commercially available (Guerra). This is the start of self-driving cars being in the hands of ordinary people and not a test group. Some people my opt out of owning a self-driving car, however they will still need to

Similarly, the article “The Moral Challenges of Driverless Cars” explains how driverless cars will be a safer alternative. It explains how humans are more prone to cause an accident than the driverless cars. The article describes the processing behind the vehicles and some problems they face while making them along with how this will delay their production. It also clarifies how the cars will be able to make the decisions that will keep people safe instead of putting them in harm’s way. Finally, the article describes the ethical issues and automation in cars today. According to Kirkpatrick, the cars are equipped with software that determine what reaction to make in different situations that would take a human more time to make, therefore, avoiding an accident. As stated in this article, there is still much work to be done before the cars are actually ready to sell to the public.

A second view that people have about self-driving cars is that they are unsafe. There are many risks that come with introducing self-driving cars to the public. One of the major risks is that they are not controlled by a person. Since there is little to no input the nobody in the vehicle will be making any decisions, which means every decision will be left to a machine. One problem this can create is that technology sometimes glitches out. If the car glitches out while driving there is no telling what could happen. The car could start moving out of control and the people inside would not be able to do anything about the vehicle losing control. Another thing that makes it unsafe is that every vehicle on the road will not be fully autonomous.

My research topic is about who is responsible for a self-driving car accident? The driver or the car manufacturer? This is probably the most popular topic regarding on self-driving cars, it is an ethical issue since it involves both human being and technology. Based on deontology ethical framework, the driver cannot responsible for a faulty self-driving system, but driver does have the responsibility to control the car in current social culture.

Windsor researched into this possibility. He asks these simple, but important questions “But should they be programmed to make the decision that is best for their owners? Or the choice that does the least harm -- even if that means choosing to slam into a retaining wall to avoid hitting an oncoming school bus?” Once I read over the first question I knew that the ugliness of business would rather develop a car that takes their customers lives into greater importance than other drivers. It would not make sense to program a car to save the life of other drivers when they are not paying to have a “safety guard”, if you

As many people head out to start their days, a good majority will get into their cars and face many split second decisions. As humans when faced with split second decisions, it is impossible to always make the right choice. Autonomous cars are unable to make ethical decisions, such as deciding which way to swerve where both either direction (right or left) could endanger others.

Since the beginning of self-driving cars which first began in 1925 with the creation of the Houdina Radio Control; a car operated by two cars, a transmitter, and an antenna, to now - the futuristic dream of these autonomous cars have transformed into the reality of cars we see now. These cars are nothing short of the new technology advances that have occurred over the past decade. However, with these advances many question whether or not these cars are ready to be sold, due to the fatal accident that occurred May 2016 involving the autonomous Tesla and a white truck. Due to the Tesla not being able to detect the white tractor because of technological issues, the tesla failed to stop, and since the driver was not prepared to steer, it lead to the fatal collision eventually leading to the death of the tesla owner. With the increase of these cars on the road, from companies like BMW, Daimler, Ford, Apple, Uber, and Google, this poses a serious threat to not only the people operating this autonomous vehicle but also to the surrounding drivers. I believe that autonomous cars should not be put on the road, and that these cars are not beneficial to the population.

The positive impacts of advancements in modern technology are undeniable in our lives, but with the new technology comes new dangers. One of these new dangers is the inevitability of self-driving cars. With companies such as Tesla already having cars in production with an autopilot feature, it will not be long before other automotive companies join the new trend. Although these self-driving cars have a multitude of sensors and cameras to keep you safe will driving how would these cars react in the instance where an accident is unavoidable? In the situation where an accident is unavoidable, and no matter the choice that is made death is imminent, the people responsible for the avoidance patterning for self-driving cars should program the car

This kind of technology was developed with the intention of improving the quality of life of people by eliminating human error, which, as mentioned previously, accounts for 95% of all car crashes. When compared to autonomous vehicles, “researchers estimate that driverless cars could, by midcentury, reduce traffic fatalities by up to 90 percent.” (4) I believe engineers developed this technology acting on their duty to improve the quality of life of the public. I am an Electronic Systems Engineering Technology student and I am currently working on a senior design project, which consists of providing a certain level of autonomy to a go-kart. My team and I are developing a vehicle-to-vehicle communication and control system (V2VC2). My project is a baseline project that in the long run hopes to reduce the amount of human exposure in dangerous grounds. I have been working on this project for almost a year now and before starting it, I did extensive research on autonomous vehicles. With the knowledge I have gained after researching this topic and working on my project, I have developed a utilitarian view on the subject. I believe that engineers worked and continue to work hard to minimize the risk to people on the roads with the development of this technology. This kind of technology is fairly new, and it has caused human deaths, but its something engineers are still trying to improve with the end goal of minimizing human deaths. There is still a long way to go before this kind of technology is perfected, but there are trying to develop measures to prevent further damage to the

Autonomous vehicles are on the verge of drastically changing transportation. They potentially can save millions of dollars in damages and fuel efficiency as well as countless lives. However, the development of driverless cars pose serious ethical problems for software engineers. For instance, the millions of people who earn their living driving trucks or cabs would lose their jobs as they get replaced by computer programs. Another issue is transparency because the driving software needs to be very high quality to increase safety. Company designers and researchers tend to work secretly, so others can’t steal their progress but this close mindedness closes off extra ideas and criticism. Finally, the need for safe code delves into morality. An autonomous car will have to make life and death

In the article Why Self Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill, there are robotic cars being manufactured. These vehicles will get better gas mileage and prevent less accidents compared to human driven vehicles. One dilemma due to these robotic vehicles is if a time comes where you are riding in your robotic vehicle and it heads straight into a group of ten people the only way to save these people is to swerve and crash into a wall killing the driver and the occupants of the vehicle. Most people are comfortable with the idea that self driving cars should be programmed to minimize the death toll. These issues can not be ignored because how much time and money these car companies have endowed in this robotic advanced product. Which one would choose when it comes down to it?

Many people do not feel safe with technology taking over. It can put the person in a more dangerous situation than if the person was handling the car on their own. Hacking can also be a problem for autonomous vehicles as well. Since self-driving vehicles are operated by technology hackers can take control of the vehicle. This will be one the biggest obstacles that self-driving companies are going to have to face.

With the introduction of self-driving cars an unspoken dilemma has emerged that very few individuals have discussed and that is should a self-driving car kill the owner to save the lives of others? In the first article critique, the Insurance Journal poses the question on what ethical system a self-driving car will adhere to and in addition to this, should the driver or owner be able to choose and adjust that ethical system? In the article, the author reaches out to Ameen Barghi of Oxford University for the options. Barghi stated that there are two philosophical approaches to autonomous cars, one being utilitarianism which says to do what will produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number or people or on the other hand, deontology which argues that some values are simply always true (Insurance Journal, 2015). In addition to this, Barghi adds that once an ethical system has been chosen, it can be further detailed such as will the decisions be based off rule or act utilitarianism (Insurance Journal, 2015).

In today’s world of manual driving, one would probably drive faster than the speed limit in the case of an emergency. Would an autonomous car programmed to follow the laws and regulations of driving have the situational awareness to justify speeding? Perhaps an emergency “speed to the hospital” mode could be installed, but that could give rise to a whole new set of issues. In another scenario, imagine a two-lane road with the cars in both lanes traveling in opposite directions. Suddenly, a squirrel runs out into the middle of the lane. In the choice between harm to oneself and other humans versus harm to a squirrel, it is likely that most humans would opt to sacrifice the squirrel. On the other hand, the self-driving car might be programmed to slam on its breaks, possibly resulting in a crash with the human drivers behind it. If there were no oncoming traffic, a human driver could simply swerve to the other lane to avoid the squirrel, whereas a driverless car that is autonomously following the laws of traffic may be prohibited from crossing the double yellow line that divides the two lanes. It is situations like these that highlight the key issue of how a self-driving car should react when ethics and law

Self-driving cars without a driver behind the wheel, is the start of a new era of vehicles. Imagine a society where there are no road traffic accidents and no road rage or speeding tickets, where cars drive themselves. However, there could be some moral ethics which can be very concerning when it comes to trolley problems that triggers many questions like: whose lives should be sacrificed in an unavoidable crash? Safety? And other ongoing questions. There are many advantages and disadvantages. That’s why in recent discussions many members of the Stanford community had a debate on the ethical issues that will arise when humans turn over the wheel to algorithms (Shashkevich 4). Arguments on how the world will change with driverless cars on the roads and how to make that future as ethical and responsible as possible are intensifying (Shashkevich 2). “The idea is to address the concerns upfront, designing good technology that fits into people’s social worlds” (Millar).