Human Decisions in Moral Dilemmas are Largely Described by Utilitarianism: Virtual Car Driving Study Provides Guidelines for Autonomous Driving Vehicles

Experiments in ethics, such as the trolley dilemma, have been explored extensively, showing that humans act in utilitarian ways, trying to cause as little overall damage as possible. These dilemmas have regained attention in recent years, due to the necessity of implementing moral decision making in autonomous vehicles (AVs). The authors conducted virtual reality experiments in which participants experienced ethical dilemmas as drivers. Participants had to decide between driving in one of two lanes where they met different obstacles, having to decide which of the objects they would crash into. The obstacles included a variety of human-like avatars of different ages and group sizes. Sidewalks as potential safety refuges and the implications of self-sacrifice were also tested. Results showed that participants generally decided in a utilitarian way, sparing the highest possible number of avatars within the constraints of the variables. These findings concur with the utilitarian nature of moral decisions, and provide an argument for an obligatory ethics setting to be implemented in AVs.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-018-0020-x
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13533452
• Authors:
  • Faulhaber, Anja K
  • Dittmer, Anke
  • Blind, Felix
  • Wachter, Maximilian A
  • Timm, Silja
  • Sutfeld, Leon R
  • Stephan, Achim
  • Pipa, Gordon
  • Konig, Peter
• Publication Date: 2019

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 399-418
• Serial:
  • Science and Engineering Ethics
  • Volume: 25
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Springer Publishing
  • ISSN: 1353-3452
  • EISSN: 1471-5546
  • Serial URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1353-3452/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Behavior; Decision making; Drivers; Driving simulators; Ethics; Virtual reality
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01728643
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 28 2020 9:46AM