As the hype over driverless cars continues to build, regulators, manufacturers and the people who ride in these types of vehicles face serious ethical questions. If faced with an unavoidable, potentially fatal crash, would the car be programmed to save its occupants at any costs or would it sacrifice its passengers for the greater good of saving, for instance, a group of pedestrians? The answer is that autonomous driving systems will not always make decisions based on human safety concerns.
As the hype over driverless cars continues to build, regulators, manufacturers and the people who ride in these types of vehicles face serious ethical questions. If faced with an unavoidable, potentially fatal crash, would the car be programmed to save its occupants at any costs or would it sacrifice its passengers for the greater good of saving, for instance, a group of pedestrians? While self-driving car manufacturers have yet to reveal their stance on such questions, it seems unlikely they will find a universally acceptable response.