The Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles and Their Implications are Fascinating and Difficult

Credit: Illustration by Victor Kerlow

Self-driving cars coming. New high-end MBs, Teslas and others have some self-driving logic built in. As the technology matures, and we let the vehicles take over, people like Chris Gerdes and Patrick Lin are thinking about what the ethical implications are for accidents which might happen. 

In a July article in the MIT Technology Review, Gerdes considered what might happen when a vehicle is confronted with a horrible situation:

At a recent industry event, Gerdes gave an example of one such scenario: a child suddenly dashing into the road, forcing the self-driving car to choose between hitting the child or swerving into an oncoming van.

MB, Volvo and Google to Assume Liability for Autonomous Vehicle Accidents

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Confidence score of 10 out of 10 by these three manufacturers.  I would expect others to follow. 

At the recent A Future with Self-Driving Cars—Is it Safe? seminar in Washington, D.C., Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson announced that Volvo will accept full liability whenever one if its cars is in autonomous mode. The pledge is particularly important as Volvo in 2017 will be loaning 100 XC90 SUVs designed to drive in full autonomous mode in certain sections of the Swedish city of Gothenburg to local families on a trial basis.

Two additional leaders in the development of autonomous cars, Mercedes-Benz and Google, in an interview with 60 Minutes have also said they’ll accept responsibility and liability for autonomous cars should an accident occur due to the technology.

Source: motorauthority.com