Self-Driving Cars and Engineering Ethics: The Need for a System Level Analysis

While the literature on autonomous vehicles (AVs) and the ethics of their use continues to grow, most of it focuses on ethical problems involving single vehicles. Though this is important, it is an inadequate step towards determining AV technology’s general impact on people and society. Ongoing discussions need to be complemented by a wider, system-level of analysis that engages with the interactions and effects that AVs will have on each other and on the social and technical systems which they will be part of. To bring the discussion of AVs to the system level, the authors used two traffic scenarios highlighting some of the complexities related to AV technology that designers, policymakers, and manufacturers must consider. The authors describe three approaches that could address the complexities and conclude by bringing attention to the "Moral Responsibility for Computing Artifacts: The Rules", a framework that can provide insight on ethical issues related to AVs.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-0006-0
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13533452
• Authors:
  • Borenstein, Jason
  • Herkert, Joseph R
  • Miller, Keith W
• Publication Date: 2019

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 383-398
• 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; Ethics; Social factors; Systems analysis; Technological innovations
• Subject Areas: Highways; Society; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01728644
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 28 2020 9:46AM