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Ethical considerations for autonomous vehicles (AVs) go beyond the "trolley problem" to include such aspects as risk / benefit trade-offs, informed consent, risk responsibility and risk mitigation within a system of systems. In this paper we present a methodology for arguing that the behaviour of a given AV meets desired ethical characteristics. We identify some of the ethical imperatives surrounding the introduction of AVs and consider how decisions made during development can impact the ethics of the AV' s behaviour.

Defence Standard 00-56 Issue 4 is the current contractual safety standard for UK MOD projects. It requires the production of a structured argument, supported by diverse evidence, to show that a system is safe for a defined purpose within a defined environment. This paper introduces a Standard of Best Practice which has been produced by the Software Systems Engineering Initiative to provide guidance for software compliance with Defence Standard 00-56 Issue 4.