Autonomous Driving Ethics: from Trolley Problem to Ethics of Risk

Abstract

In 2017, the German ethics commission for automated and connected driving released 20 ethical guidelines for autonomous vehicles. It is now up to the research and industrial sectors to enhance the development of autonomous vehicles based on such guidelines. In the current state of the art, we find studies on how ethical theories can be integrated. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no framework for motion planning has yet been published which allows for the true implementation of any practical ethical policies. This paper makes four contributions: Firstly, we briefly present the state of the art based on recent works concerning unavoidable accidents of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and identify further need for research. While most of the research focuses on decision strategies in moral dilemmas or crash optimization, we aim to develop an ethical trajectory planning for all situations on public roads. Secondly, we discuss several ethical theories and argue for the adoption of the theory “ethics of risk.” Thirdly, we propose a new framework for trajectory planning, with uncertainties and an assessment of risks. In this framework, we transform ethical specifications into mathematical equations and thus create the basis for the programming of an ethical trajectory. We present a risk cost function for trajectory planning that considers minimization of the overall risk, priority for the worst-off and equal treatment of people. Finally, we build a connection between the widely discussed trolley problem and our proposed framework.

The German Act on Autonomous Driving: Why Ethics Still Matters

“…This fact applies specifically to trajectory planning. The programming method could create greater risks in various traffic situations when determining the autonomous vehicle’s correct distance from other close objects, such as cyclists or trucks (Geisslinger et al, 2021 ).…”

Safety Engineering and Communication System for Autonomous Vehicles: A Review, Challenges and Solutions

“…The essential aspect of reducing fuel consumption while stuck in a traffic jam is ignored by many of the human drivers but an automated vehicle takes care of it properly. Various outlooks of ethics in autonomous driving consisting of unpreventable accidents of automated vehicles have been explored in Geisslinger et al ( 2021) [30]. The roles and duties of automotive industries and institutions to incorporate ethics on automated vehicle development have been proposed in Martinho et al…”

Número completo

“…The last point leads us to raise the issue of the ethical implications of AI, which is a hot topic for the philosophers that reflect on scenarios first foreshadowed in sci-fi. Indeed, nowadays there is a lively debate on the ethical implications of AI technologies in domains such as medicine , warfare (Sullins, 2010), automated vehicles (Geisslinger et al, 2021) and in many other spheres of our life (Wellner 2018. Sometimes, these applications of new technologies are foreseen in sci-fi works.…”