Top

Artificial Intelligence and Law

Published in:

11-09-2017

The Ethical Knob: ethically-customisable automated vehicles and the law

Authors: Giuseppe Contissa, Francesca Lagioia, Giovanni Sartor

Published in: Artificial Intelligence and Law | Issue 3/2017

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

Accidents involving autonomous vehicles (AVs) raise difficult ethical dilemmas and legal issues. It has been argued that self-driving cars should be programmed to kill, that is, they should be equipped with pre-programmed approaches to the choice of what lives to sacrifice when losses are inevitable. Here we shall explore a different approach, namely, giving the user/passenger the task (and burden) of deciding what ethical approach should be taken by AVs in unavoidable accident scenarios. We thus assume that AVs are equipped with what we call an “Ethical Knob”, a device enabling passengers to ethically customise their AVs, namely, to choose between different settings corresponding to different moral approaches or principles. Accordingly, AVs would be entrusted with implementing users’ ethical choices, while manufacturers/programmers would be tasked with enabling the user’s choice and ensuring implementation by the AV.

previous article On the problem of making autonomous vehicles conform to traffic law

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

$$\begin{aligned} TDis(c_1,a_1)&= 0.36 * 1 =0.36TDis(c_2,a_2)= 0.3 * 1 =0.3 \\ NTDis(c_1,a_1) &= \frac{0.36}{0.36 + 0.3} = 0.55\\ NTDis(c_2,a_2)&= \frac{0.3}{0.36 + 0.3} = 0.45.\end{aligned}$$

For simplicity we do not consider cases when more than one choice have the same disutility for their most disadvantaged agent, such cases have to be addressed according to the principles of lexicographic order, i.e, by considering the second most disadvantaged agent, and so on.

Bonnefon JF, Shariff A, Rahwan I (2015) Autonomous vehicles need experimental ethics: are we ready for utilitarian cars? arXiv preprint arXiv:151003346

Bonnefon JF, Shariff A, Rahwan I (2016) The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles. Science 352(6293):1573–1576CrossRef

Foot P (1967) The problem of abortion and the doctrine of double effect. Oxford Review 5(1):5–15

Gogoll J, Müller JF (2016) Autonomous cars: In favor of a mandatory ethics setting. Science and Engineering Ethics. doi:10.1007/s11948-016-9806-x

Goodall NJ (2016) Away from trolley problems and toward risk management. Appl Artif Intell 30(8):810–821CrossRef

Leben D (2017) A Rawlsian algorithm for autonomous vehicles. Ethics Inf Technol 19(2):107–115CrossRef

Lin P (2014) Here’s a terrible idea: robot cars with adjustable ethics settings. Wired com Available via http://www.wired.com/2014/08/heres-a-terrible-idea-robot-cars-with-adjustable-ethics-settings

Lin P (2016) Why ethics matters for autonomous cars. In: Maurer M, Gerdes JC, Lenz B, Winner H (eds) Autonomous driving. Springer, pp 69–85

Millar J (2015) Technology as moral proxy: autonomy and paternalism by design. IEEE Technol Soc Mag 34(2):47–55CrossRef

Nyholm S, Smids J (2016) The ethics of accident-algorithms for self-driving cars: an applied trolley problem? Ethical theory and moral practice pp 1–15, doi:10.1007/s10677-016-9745-2

Rawls J (1999) A Theory of Justice, revised edn. Oxford University Press

Santoni de Sio F (2017) Killing by autonomous vehicles and the legal doctrine of necessity. Ethical Theory Moral Pract 20(2):411–429. doi:10.1007/s10677-017-9780-7 CrossRef

Thomson JJ (1976) Killing, letting die, and the trolley problem. The Monist 59(2):204–217CrossRef

Title: The Ethical Knob: ethically-customisable automated vehicles and the law
Authors: Giuseppe Contissa
Francesca Lagioia
Giovanni Sartor
Publication date: 11-09-2017
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Artificial Intelligence and Law / Issue 3/2017
Print ISSN: 0924-8463
Electronic ISSN: 1572-8382
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10506-017-9211-z

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Other articles of this Issue 3/2017

On the legal responsibility of autonomous machines

Do androids dream of normative endorsement? On the fallibility of artificial moral agents

Of, for, and by the people: the legal lacuna of synthetic persons

On the problem of making autonomous vehicles conform to traffic law

Introduction to the special issue on machine law

Robot sex and consent: Is consent to sex between a robot and a human conceivable, possible, and desirable?

Premium Partner