Self Driving Cars and Ethics

February 15, 2018, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

Self driving cars promise to reduce accident and injury claims, to free up time and to be safer. Who programs their ethics though? They will at some point encounter questions that will require weighting the values of one life against another. The technology will only be as sound as that of those who programme it.

If an accident is unavoidable how will the cars decide who to save and who to harm or kill? The debate around this subject is gaining profile in the technology circles. Current estimates are that autonomous cars will reduce accidents by up to 90% on roads and highways simply by eliminating human error, distraction and inattention. While it is unreasonable to expect accidents to be reduced by 100% at this point, the remaining 10% raises some interesting questions.

Who will be harmed if the computer recognizes that harm is unavoidable. How will the value of life be weighted? Animal over human? Cost over value of a life? Value of a child’s life versus and elderly person’s life? How will this all be factored into the algorithms that are being developed now?

Ethics is not a glamourous topic featured in the futuristic ads at car shows and, in the magazines,, however according to Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford Motors Company, if the technology is to succeed and serve our society than the ethics questions must be resolved sooner than later.

The key is in the AI of the machines and in who programs it. We have the ability to give the cars the ability to drive but we don’t have the data to created machines that can perceive and respond to the ‘value’ decisions that we make in real life. Mr. Ford used the following example in the press recently “a child jumps in front of a car and there is no time to brake”. What if the options are to veer into oncoming traffic or veer onto the sidewalk full of people or to hit a pole. Each option requires the ability to make the decision in a split second over which lives are most valuable.

Germany has begun this discussion with proposed guidelines which will require minimizing human death, will not discriminate on the basis of age, gender or other factors, and humans will always be given priority over animals or property. It is easy to agree to these principals of course, unless you are in the car and are going to die to minimize the casualty count.

We as humans make these decisions every day in accident situations, but inevitably machines will be held to a higher standard for good reason. They will lack emotion and bias if programmed to, but they cannot deliberate. We may have unreasonable expectations of the technology.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

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