Morale Machine: Can be a self-driving car ethical?

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To take Autonomous vehicles in an accident, rather the death of an old people or a child? How people would answer this moral question, lit a new study.

People can be unanimous, such as robot cars in ethically difficult accident situations to decide? The attempt, at least, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mit) to find out. The study is published in the scientific magazine “Nature”.

The Online game “morality Machine” confronted the subjects with different situations and varying road users. Then you need to opt for in their eyes, reasonable accidental damage: Over I the pensioner, the crosses in red the road, or I’m going against the concrete wall, which endangers the occupants of my car, including children?

More: the first Fatal accident with a self-driving car of Uber in the United States

The Online game of the WITH the subjects in front of different traffic situations, where you have to decide.

Majority of the respondents: Young before Old

The results show that The majority of respondents would prefer to spare children than older people. And most of the would – given the choice – more animals run over as people. However, larger cultural differences between people in different regions of the world showed itself on closer inspection.

The researchers had differentiated into three groups: Western, Eastern and southern clusters. So decided Respondents in Asian countries (Eastern Cluster) tend to agree – out of respect – to spare the lives of the elderly traffic participants.

Over 40 million decisions, from the “morality Machine”- survey were analyzed, the scientists. Because young men were over-represented among the two million participants of the Survey, the result is, however, not representative.

More on this: for the time being, no Tests of Autonomous Uber cars in Arizona

How to decide the self-driving car if an accident is inevitable?

Ethical programming of Autonomous vehicles?

By the results of the researchers of trying to find out, what are the ethics of self-driving could be programmed to cars in the future. This contradicts in part the rules proposed by the ethics Commission for Automated and Connected Driving in June 2017.

Among other things, the German Commission against discrimination: “In the case of inevitable accident situations, each qualification is forbidden according to personal characteristics (age, gender, physical or mental Constitution) is strictly prohibited.”

The Jura Professor Silja Vöneky the goal of the authors is basically correct – triggers a debate on the “ethical programming” of Autonomous vehicles: “We should not, however, believe that we need to invent all of the standards and principles of a new, or change just because it is a new technology,” says Vöneky, compared to the Science Media Center in Germany. She teaches international law, legal ethics and comparative law at the University of Freiburg.

Also Armin Grunwald from the Karlsruhe Institute for technology (KIT) and member of the ethics Commission for Automated and Connected Driving, is skeptical, and warns of the conclusions of the study: “to Neither Play nor from surveys can be the ethical permissibility of standards learned. Otherwise, could be made after every severe crime a survey that would go out with almost certainly for the introduction of the death penalty.” And, although this has been abolished in most countries.

sw/hf(dpa)


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