Autonomous vehicles: ethically sound decisions in case of an accident?

Autonomous vehicles are no longer the reality of a distant future. They are being promoted by car companies and some countries are even allowing self-driving cars to appear on the road. But with that comes the ethical issue of how these vehicles should be programmed in case of an accident. Should they decide their course of action based on the number of casualties? Or should they take into consideration the age of potential casualties as well? And how should the rules take into account a country's cultural practices?

The basic model used for research on the ethics of autonomous vehicles is the so-called Trolley Dilemma/Problem, which has taken on many variations over time. In a nutshell, it is a solution to the dilemma of workers working on the tracks on which a tram is speeding. At the last moment, it is possible to switch to another track. But there is also a worker working on it, albeit only one. Do we sacrifice him?

"The thought experiment with the tram is valuable for several reasons. It allows us to explore people's moral intuitions about the distribution of harm. Modern technologies are increasingly present in our lives, and we need to know what expectations we have of them and how they should behave in critical situations. The harm distribution situation also helps us to analyze the so-called trolley dilemmas. For example, let's say that an autonomous vehicle gets into a collision situation where every manoeuvre involves a collision with another vehicle, a pedestrian, or an animal. How should it make a decision? Finally, it helps us to map out all possible situations where some kind of harm occurs during the use of modern technologies with some autonomy, whether to property, health, or life," says David Černý from the Institute of State and Law of the CAS.

A unique view from around the world

Answers to more than just these questions are provided in a book called Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: The Trolley Problem and Beyond, published by Oxford University Press. It is the first ever complete monograph on the ethics of autonomous vehicles. It looks at this issue not only from the perspective of philosophy but also sociology, economics, and urban planning. Authors from all over the world have contributed to it, and Czech researchers have significantly enriched it. David Černý from the Institute of State and Law and Tomáš Hříbek from the Institute of Philosophy of the CAS contributed to the book as authors and editors, as did Daniel Novotný from the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.

In the book, the authors also discuss why the tramway dilemma model is in some respects restrictive. One reason, they say, is that the car may not always get completely accurate information about the situation and the number of victims. They also point out that not just one ethical theory of autonomous vehicle behavior may be correct. In fact, there are too many factors and values at play: while in some situations, a certain solution is more appropriate, in a different situation a different one is.

In the book, ethicist David Černý addresses the question of what role the age of the victim should play in autonomous vehicle decision-making. "Under certain clearly defined conditions, differentiation based on age does not have to be discrimination," the author adds.

Tomáš Hříbek discusses the philosophy of the city. "Classical philosophy, beginning with Plato, emphasized the political and anthropological significance of the traditional city, understood as a city for pedestrians. This city has been destroyed, or at least disrupted, by the use of cars in the last century. I argue that autonomous mobility opens up various possibilities: one of them is, to some extent, the regeneration of the traditional pedestrian city," says the scientist.

Daniel Novotný, and a Thai philosopher Soraj Hongladarom reflect on the so far neglected culture-specific context of autonomous vehicles: "Different cultures are characterised by very different ways of driving and dealing with collision situations. Thus, one set of explicit rules cannot be applied globally, e.g. in Thailand and the Czech Republic. For this reason, the authors suggest that autonomous vehicles should be taught in the driving schools of a given culture."

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