How to Help Self-Driving Cars Make Ethical Decisions
[Via Computing – MIT Technology Review]
Researchers are trying to program self-driving cars to make split-second decisions that raise real ethical questions.
A philosopher is perhaps the last person you’d expect to have a hand in designing your next car, but that’s exactly what one expert on self-driving vehicles has in mind.
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It looks like philosophers and programmers will be creating the ethical decisions for autonomous cars.
Too bad for squirrels.
And they say that it is unethical not to have self-driving cars as soon as possible.
So, how does software balance a car full of teenagers against a child in the street? What sort of pragmatism will be reduced to software?
Who gets to decide? Will there be different sorts of philosophical software to download? Or different hack?
I guess we will have to figure it out.
Image: Travis Wise
A Man With A Ph.D. 