Op-Ed-Social Dilemma of Autonomous Vehicles

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 Autonomous vehicles are no longer part of the fiction movies. Most of the major car manufactories already produced or in the production process of autonomous vehicles. Google started their autonomous vehicles project in 2009. The first project of google done on Toyota Prius vehicle for multiple uninterrupted 100 miles routes. On 2012, Google have added Lexus RX450 model to the fleet, and the employees started to test the cars for week and weekend trips in the more complex environment which includes pedestrians, cyclist, and roadworks. On 2015 the car model by itself changed, and it looked like a mini spaceship. The vehicle did not have a steering wheel and pedals. These vehicles tested on public roads in Austin, TX. In 2016 Google self-driving project separated into an individual company called WAYMO. On 2017, WAYMO added Chrysler Pacific Hybrid minivan to the project’s fleet. This model was the vehicle built on mass production. Nissan Motor company is going to introduce their first fully autonomous vehicles in 2022. General Motors is another major company which has lots of project in smart city designs. GM plans to mass produce their self-driving cars without steering wheels and pedals by 2019. 

 This change of approach in vehicles can impact travel behavior of the users in a different way. People who could not drive before, such as blind people or seniors, will be able to use a vehicle as their travel modes. The first test drive of Google’s self-drive vehicle was done by a blind citizen, and it shows how much his accessibility and mobility increased by having a self-drive vehicle. 

 Autonomous vehicles are supposed to improve traffic efficiency, reduce pollution, and eliminate a high range of traffic accidents. Nevertheless, there are still so many people that are not ready to adapt to this technology. While technology shows the benefit of autonomous vehicles, the governments are still concern about it. The Center of Internet and Society (CIS) in University of Stanford, provide the map of the states that are currently authorized the autonomous vehicles with many other states under consideration. Figure 1 shows the current map provided by CIS on 14 February 2017.
Figure 1 – States Authorization for Autonomous Vehicles -Last Updated Date: 14 February 

 As this figure shows, five states have already passed the legislation and allowed autonomous vehicles to drive on their road. However, there are still so many states which the legislative efforts have not started or are under consideration. Governments still concern about the outcome of autonomous vehicles. 

 Bonnefon et al. (2016), review the challenge of making an ethical decision by autonomous vehicles. Authors state that not all the crashes will be avoided with autonomous vehicles and these vehicles must confront complex ethical choices. This paper shows different scenarios for the decisions that should be made by autonomous vehicles. For example, in Figure 2 A, the vehicle should make a choice between killing several pedestrians or one. This decision will fit the moral principles to minimize the casualties. In Figure 2 B, vehicles should make a decision between killing a pedestrian or its own passenger. But the biggest issue is when autonomous vehicles should make a decision in a situation like in Figure 2 C. Vehicles have to choose between killing its own passenger or several people. Even such circumstances may be infrequent, but still understanding the moral algorithms with human values is critical. 
Figure 2 – Traffic situations involving unavoidable harm. 

 Although, the algorithms are programmed to avoid crashes, but there will be crashes that are unavoidable. There are different ethical choices available, and each of these choices will change the performance of the vehicles in the circumstances drastically. Also, technology errors and cyber-attacks can contribute to collisions. Ethics is critical for autonomous vehicles, and it cannot be neglected by manufacturer and governments.

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Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 21, 2018 at 11:38 PM

    Thank you for the great post(Op-Ed). As you claim, in order for autonomous vehicles to be fully introduced on the road, there should be enough ethical discussions in our society and related legislative issues to be resolved rather than just improving technical issues of the AV. Furthermore, I think that we need laws and policies on the federal level to prepare for possible accidents and problems as much as possible.

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