Should a self driving car KILL car passengers in a greater good scenario??

I see this being brought into acceptance buy the public from initially using the cars in a taxi or uber type scenario.


Hmmm, a taxi fleet of driverless cars.

Yep and sometimes unavoidable for either human or self-drving cars. But can be avoided/mitigated by driving to the conditions - i.e. speed/distance/awareness.

The trouble is most drivers, especially trucks are on autopilot, tailgating, going too fast, etc and accidents will not only occur but be exacerbated by human error.

Self-drving cars will be in a better position to pre-empt this kind of thing (i.e. with thermal cameras) and react more quickly than a human can. Not to mention, they won't be driving irresponsibly in the first place.

In 2014 public road tests became legal in ca mi fl nv and tx

Thanks for the pin and all the contributions guys.. Been out all day and missed it...

Think most of you understood why I posted it and the larger question this poses...

What a great story that was. One of my favorites from King. He really nailed the WTF angle.

aHEMagain

You've already entrusted the lives of yourself and others to the mercy of machines. That ship has sailed.



As far as cars go, I'll predict that within five-ten years, you won't have an option to say no.

All new cars will come with the capability, and it won't take much regulating to make it a requirement, at least on freeways. I was pretty surprised when I learned that Google already had their self-driving cars on the road. They didn't bother with getting legislation passed to allow it, they just did it.

That's a fairly huge decision with massive ramifications to be made by a corporation with no input from the "electorate". It provides an example of how we ought to expect this technology to progress.

If you work in the trucking industry, you'd better be making plans for another livelihood, because the pressure to replace drivers with automation is intense. The economic transition will of course favor some corporations over others, just as the death of rail transport did.

Many of the ethical issues will end up being worked out in court. When a significant percentage of the vehicles on a freeway are under automatic control, I'll wager than some of the ethical considerations become non-issues as the accident rate drops to near zero.

Until someone hacks into the systems and creates a five hundred car pileup, or someone creates a version of stuxnet that causes certain cars to plow into bridge abutments.

aHEMagain

Last Edited by aHEMagain^2 on 10/29/2015 04:49 PM