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Ethics of AI Driverless Cars, How Will They Decide Life-and-Death Choices
Dr. Lance B. Eliot, AI Insider
Considered a first-ever death involving a “driverless” car (actually, not truly driverless, merely instead semi-automated, or considered an Advanced Driver Assistance System referred to as ADAS), in 2016 the self-driving car industry and the public were unsettled by the crash of a Tesla car that was on Autopilot and rammed into a nearby tractor trailer, sadly killing the driver of the Tesla.
This fatal collision gained national and global attention.
Some wondered whether this was finally the tipping point that self-driving cars weren’t ready for the road and might spark a backlash against the rollout of self-driving cars. For several months, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigated the incident, utilizing their Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) to ascertain the nature of the crash and what role the human driver of the Tesla played and what role the Tesla Autopilot played.
The ODI announced its results and closed the case on January 19, 2017.
Their analysis indicated that they did not identify any defects in the design of the system and that it worked as designed. A reaction by some was of shock and dismay. If the system worked as designed, does this…
