The Moral Challenges Of Driverless Cars By Keith Kirkpatrick
In his article “The Moral Challenges of Driverless Cars” author Keith Kirkpatrick (2015) presents ethical and moral decisions that a driver has to make while driving on the road. Then, he combines those challenges with the fact that driverless cars have not been allowed yet. Moreover, he believes that the autonomous cars will have better responses during routine driving tasks than a human driver will. Kirkpatrick continues his argument by quoting experts who support his claim. Bryant Walker Smith, for example, says that most of the crashes are caused by human errors and the driverless cars will decrease these kinds of crashes.
Besides showing the advantages, the author also refers to the technological difficulties of the autonomous cars, and
presents renown academic Patrick Lin's claim – a human has the ability to distinguish between objects, while it is still very difficult for a computer to recognize an object as that object. For example, while a human can discern between a pedestrian and a shopping cart without hesitation, for now, it is difficult to program a computer to do the same in real time emergency situations.
Another problem is ethical, the autonomous car has to respond very fast in case of an emergency, and to consider all of the possible risks. An example of such an ethical issue, is the classic philosophical dilemma of a choice between a driver injuring oneself, or causing harm to others on the street in an inevitable crash scenario. However, those ethical issues already exist, since our existing cars are already half automated, and the driver has to face the consequences of his own choice. Despite these difficulties, the author argues that machines are likely able to respond faster and more accurately than humans to emergency situations. However, before autonomous vehicles hit the road, the industry must first overcome the moral choice to which decision is of higher priority to program into the computerized system
Finally, Kirkpatrick concludes his argument about the ethical issues of driverless cars by claiming that the technological solutions can provide improved awareness and safety. Because of these innovations, the number of situations that demand a moral decision to be made will be significantly reduced, however, getting to that point in the future will surely be a rough road to navigate.
Kirkpatrick, Keith. "The Moral Challenges of Driverless Cars." August 2015. http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/8/189836-the-moral-challenges-of-driverless-cars/fulltext
Besides showing the advantages, the author also refers to the technological difficulties of the autonomous cars, and
presents renown academic Patrick Lin's claim – a human has the ability to distinguish between objects, while it is still very difficult for a computer to recognize an object as that object. For example, while a human can discern between a pedestrian and a shopping cart without hesitation, for now, it is difficult to program a computer to do the same in real time emergency situations.
Another problem is ethical, the autonomous car has to respond very fast in case of an emergency, and to consider all of the possible risks. An example of such an ethical issue, is the classic philosophical dilemma of a choice between a driver injuring oneself, or causing harm to others on the street in an inevitable crash scenario. However, those ethical issues already exist, since our existing cars are already half automated, and the driver has to face the consequences of his own choice. Despite these difficulties, the author argues that machines are likely able to respond faster and more accurately than humans to emergency situations. However, before autonomous vehicles hit the road, the industry must first overcome the moral choice to which decision is of higher priority to program into the computerized system
Finally, Kirkpatrick concludes his argument about the ethical issues of driverless cars by claiming that the technological solutions can provide improved awareness and safety. Because of these innovations, the number of situations that demand a moral decision to be made will be significantly reduced, however, getting to that point in the future will surely be a rough road to navigate.
Kirkpatrick, Keith. "The Moral Challenges of Driverless Cars." August 2015. http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/8/189836-the-moral-challenges-of-driverless-cars/fulltext