Authors
Jean-François Bonnefon, Azim Shariff, Iyad Rahwan
Publication date
2016/6/24
Journal
Science
Volume
352
Issue
6293
Pages
1573-1576
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Description
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) should reduce traffic accidents, but they will sometimes have to choose between two evils, such as running over pedestrians or sacrificing themselves and their passenger to save the pedestrians. Defining the algorithms that will help AVs make these moral decisions is a formidable challenge. We found that participants in six Amazon Mechanical Turk studies approved of utilitarian AVs (that is, AVs that sacrifice their passengers for the greater good) and would like others to buy them, but they would themselves prefer to ride in AVs that protect their passengers at all costs. The study participants disapprove of enforcing utilitarian regulations for AVs and would be less willing to buy such an AV. Accordingly, regulating for utilitarian algorithms may paradoxically increase casualties by postponing the adoption of a safer technology.
Total citations
20162017201820192020202120222023202436153234298254269237216116
Scholar articles