PRE2020 3 Group11

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Problem statement

What are the relevant factors that contribute to the acceptance of self-driving cars for the private end-user?

Self-driving cars are believed to be more safe than manually driven cars. However, they can not be a 100% safe. Because crashes and collisions are unavoidable, self-driving cars should be programmed for responding to situations where accidents are highly likely or unavoidable (Sven Nyholm, Jilles Smids, 2016). There are three moral problems involving self-driving cars. First, the problem of who decides how self-driving cars should be programmed to deal with accidents exists. Next, the moral question who has to take the moral and legal responsibility for harms caused by self-driving cars is asked. Finally, there is the decision-making of risks and uncertainty.

There is the trolley problem, which is a moral problem because of human perspective on moral decisions made by machine intelligence, such as self-driving cars. For example, should a self-driving car hit a pregnant woman or swerve into a wall and kill its four passengers? There is also a moral responsibility for harms caused by self-driving cars. Suppose, for example, when there is an accident between an autonomous car and a conventional car, this will not only be followed by legal proceedings, it will also lead to a debate about who is morally responsible for what happened (Sven Nyholm, Jilles Smids, 2016).

A lot of uncertainty is involved with self-driving cars. The self-driving car cannot acquire certain knowledge about the truck’s trajectory, its speed at the time of collision, and its actual weight. Second, focusing on the self-driving car itself, in order to calculate the optimal trajectory, the self-driving car needs to have perfect knowledge of the state of the road, since any slipperiness of the road limits its maximal deceleration. Finally, if we turn to the elderly pedestrian, again we can easily identify a number of sources of uncertainty. Using facial recognition software, the self-driving car can perhaps estimate his age with some degree of precision and confidence. But it may merely guess his actual state of health (Sven Nyholm, Jilles Smids, 2016).

The decision-making about self-driving cars is more realistically represented as being made by multiple stakeholders; ordinary citizens, lawyers, ethicists, engineers, risk assessment experts, car-manufacturers, government, etc. These stakeholders need to negotiate a mutually agreed-upon solution (Sven Nyholm, Jilles Smids, 2016). This report will focus on the relevant factors that contribute to the acceptance of self-driving cars with the main focus on the private end-user. Taking into account the ethical theories: utilitarianism, kantianism, virtue ethics, deontology, ethical plurism, ethical absolutism and ethical relativism, the moral and legal responsibility, safety, security, privacy and the perspective of the private end-user.

Responsibility

Responsibility of Car crashes

One very important factor in the development and sale of automated vehicles is the question of who is responsible when things go wrong. In this section we will look in detail at all factors involved and come up with certain solutions. As brought up by Marchant and Lindor, there are three questions that need to be analysed. Firstly, who will be liable in the case of an accident? Secondly, how much weight should be given to the fact that autonomous vehicles are supposed to be safer than conventional vehicles in determining who of the involved people should be held responsible? Lastly, will a higher percentage of crashes be caused because of a manufacturing ‘defect’, compared to crashes with conventional vehicles where driver error is usually attributed to the cause (Marchant & Lindor, 2012)?

The manufacturer It would be obvious to say the manufacturer of the car is responsible. They designed the car, so if it makes a mistake, they are to blame. Any flaw in the system that might cause the car to crash, the manufacturers could have known or did know beforehand. If they then sold the car anyway, there is no question in that they are responsible. However, by holding the manufacturer responsible in every case, it would immensely discourage anyone to start producing these autonomous cars. Especially with technology as complex as autonomous driving systems, it would be nearly impossible to make it flawless (Marchant & Lindor, 2012). In order to encourage people to manufacture autonomous vehicles and still hold them responsible, a balance needs to be found between the two. This is necessary, because removing all liability would also result in undesirable effects (Hevelke & Nida-Rümelin, 2015).

References

Hevelke, A., & Nida-Rümelin, J. (2015). Responsibility for Crashes of Autonomous Vehicles: An Ethical Analysis. Science and Engineering Ethics, 21(3), 619–630. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-014-9565-5

Marchant, G. E., & Lindor, R. A. (2012). Santa Clara Law Review The Coming Collision Between Autonomous Vehicles and the Liability System THE COMING COLLISION BETWEEN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES AND THE LIABILITY SYSTEM. Number 4 Article, 52(4), 12–17. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/lawreview

Perspective of private end-user

Additional features important for users While many people look positively towards the implementation of SDC’s, less people are willing to buy one. Also, many people don’t want to invest more money in SDC’s than they do in conventional cars right now. Therefore, a car sharing scheme is preferred by many. Also many people say that they will still have concerns riding a SDC and they prefer to be able to intervene manually whenever they want or need to. Additionally, people like to take over full control when they like to. Most important benefits or concerns (in order of relevance). An SDC could solve transport-problems for older or disabled people. People are able to do other things while driving an SDC. People are concerned of legal issues caused by SDC’s. People are concerned of hackers’ attacks at SDC’s. Strategic implications (in order of relevance). A feature making the user able to take over full control should be implemented. Female and old users showed the highest agreement. Pros: People are still able to enjoy the pleasures of manually driving and they don’t lose the emotion of freedom. Cons: The total efficiency of driving will decrease. People will most likely drive less efficient, if they don’t speed. If every car drives autonomously, the cars can communicate better and adapt earlier and better to each other. Other SDC’s can’t predict what a human driver will do. It is likely that more accidents will take place, because SDC’s will most likely be safer. Free test rides should be offered to people. Salesmen should offer comprehensive information in the showroom. (König, M., & Neumayr, L. 2017b) As already said above, more people are willing to accept SDC’s when they don’t have to buy a car themselves. This means that sharing cars will be the new normal. The idea is that you can order one with a mobile app or something like that and it will drive to you by itself. This is only possible if SDC’s become autonomous at the highest level. If they are autonomous, but require a person to intervene when things go wrong, they may not drive without passenger. As also mentioned, people don’t accept fully autonomous cars as much as cars with a possibility to intervene. The problems posed by ridesharing are that not all passengers, who don’t know each other, may travel from the same point to the same point. Also, people may not always feel to comfortable when they travel with strangers. Therefore, people are willing to accept this idea more when they can order a ride for themselves and when it doesn’t stop to pick up others. That way, it will become available again when the ride is finished. This will require more cars on the road in total than when rides are shared, so it only solves part of the traffic problem. The same amount of people need to move themselves at the same time as now and buses or trains will be made less use of, because cars will be more accessible. As world population also increases, ridesharing may be necessary. A solution would be that ordering a private ride will be more expensive. Then, only a part of the population (wealthy businessmen etcetera), would make use of this option and the majority of the people would have to ride with others. Only the existence of this option and the possibility of enjoying a private ride when you really need to, could make it easier for people to accept. One benefit of not owning cars, will be that parking spots within cities won’t be needed anymore. The cars could be deployed from a base outside the city and they can be parked there when not needed.

References

Sven Nyholm, Jilles Smids. (2016). The Ethics of Accident-Algorithms for Self-Driving Cars: an Applied Trolley Problem? Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 1275–1289.