Ethical decision making for autonomous vehicles

Moura, Nelson de; Chatila, Raja; Evans, Katherine J; Chauvier, Stéphane; Dogan, Ebru

doi:10.1109/iv47402.2020.9304618

Cited by 23 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The propositions provided in this study bring to light that assumptions of ethical behaviors of AVs should be reevaluated (e.g., different cultures will prefer different AV ethical behaviors). Toward addressing this issue, researchers have recently modeled three AV ethical decision-making algorithms (contractarian, utilitarian, and egalitarian) based on a Markov Decision Process (MDP) to react when moral dilemma situation is detected (De Moura et al, 2020). Although the AV decisions from the MDP provide an implementation of pluralistic AV moral behaviors, this model does not consider the intuitive aspect of users.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Deeper Look at Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: An Integrative Ethical Decision-Making Framework to Explain Moral Pluralism

et al. 2021

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The autonomous vehicle (AV) is one of the first commercialized AI-embedded robots to make autonomous decisions. Despite technological advancements, unavoidable AV accidents that result in life-and-death consequences cannot be completely eliminated. The emerging social concern of how an AV should make ethical decisions during unavoidable accidents is referred to as the moral dilemma of AV, which has promoted heated discussions among various stakeholders. However, there are research gaps in explainable AV ethical decision-making processes that predict how AVs’ moral behaviors are made that are acceptable from the AV users’ perspectives. This study addresses the key question: What factors affect ethical behavioral intentions in the AV moral dilemma? To answer this question, this study draws theories from multidisciplinary research fields to propose the “Integrative ethical decision-making framework for the AV moral dilemma.” The framework includes four interdependent ethical decision-making stages: AV moral dilemma issue framing, intuitive moral reasoning, rational moral reasoning, and ethical behavioral intention making. Further, the framework includes variables (e.g., perceived moral intensity, individual factors, and personal moral philosophies) that influence the ethical decision-making process. For instance, the framework explains that AV users from Eastern cultures will tend to endorse a situationist ethics position (high idealism and high relativism), which views that ethical decisions are relative to context, compared to AV users from Western cultures. This proposition is derived from the link between individual factors and personal moral philosophy. Moreover, the framework proposes a dual-process theory, which explains that both intuitive and rational moral reasoning are integral processes of ethical decision-making during the AV moral dilemma. Further, this framework describes that ethical behavioral intentions that lead to decisions in the AV moral dilemma are not fixed, but are based on how an individual perceives the seriousness of the situation, which is shaped by their personal moral philosophy. This framework provides a step-by-step explanation of how pluralistic ethical decision-making occurs, reducing the abstractness of AV moral reasoning processes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Deeper Look at Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: An Integrative Ethical Decision-Making Framework to Explain Moral Pluralism

et al. 2021

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“…Markov Decision Process (MDP) is used to deal with the scenario in which ethical dilemmas might arise [39]. The implemented framework uses a measure of harm when a collision arises.…”

Section: Reinforcement Learning-based Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavior Planning for Autonomous Driving: Methodologies, Applications, and Future Orientation

Kassem

2023

MSA Engineering Journal

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Decision-making is a crucial task for autonomous driving. Taking the wrong decision might cause a cartographical accident. Decision-making implies planning the appropriate behavior based on the current state of the vehicle and its environment. The paper aims to review the current state of the art of behavior Planning for autonomous driving. A basic categorization for behavior planning algorithms is introduced. Besides, a review of different algorithms is discussed with a comparison between different algorithms from the point of view of the suitable scenario. Finally, promising research topics are discussed.

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“…The strategies chosen are popular in autonomous vehicles research that focuses on ethical decisions made by these vehicles. Utilitarianism is one of if not the most commonly considered moral system for autonomous vehicle decision-making [ 22 ], while there has been recent attention to maximin as a proxy for popular social contract theories of ethics [ 23 , 24 ]. Egalitarianism is less studied but is seen as a proxy for a particular kind of fairness in interactions of vehicles in which the parameter in question is equalized, or the benefit distributed, between parties [ 25 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A simulation study of cooperative and autonomous vehicles (CAV) considering courtesy, ethics, and fairness

2023

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Autonomous vehicles (AV) can be programmed to act cooperatively. Previous research on cooperative and autonomous vehicles (CAV) suggests they can substantially improve traffic system operations in terms of mobility and safety. However, these studies do not explicitly take each vehicle’s potential gain/loss into consideration and ignore their individual levels of willingness to cooperate. They do not account for ethics and fairness either. In this study, several cooperation/courtesy strategies are proposed to address the above issues. These strategies are grouped into two categories based on non-instrumental and instrumental principles. Non-instrumental strategies make courtesy/cooperation decisions based on some courtesy proxies and a user-specified courtesy level, while instrumental strategies are based only on courtesy proxies related to local traffic performance. Also, a new CAV behavior modeling framework is proposed based on our previous work on cooperative car-following and merging (CCM) control. With such a framework, the proposed courtesy strategies can be easily implemented. The proposed framework and courtesy strategies are coded in SUMO microscopic traffic simulator. They are evaluated considering different levels of traffic demand on a freeway corridor consisting of a work zone and three weaving areas of different types. Interesting findings are drawn from the simulation results, one of which is that the instrumental Local Utilitarianism strategy performs the best in terms of mobility, safety, and fairness. In the future, auction-based strategies can be considered to model how CAV make decisions.

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Ethical decision making for autonomous vehicles

Cited by 23 publications

References 31 publications

A Deeper Look at Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: An Integrative Ethical Decision-Making Framework to Explain Moral Pluralism

A Deeper Look at Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: An Integrative Ethical Decision-Making Framework to Explain Moral Pluralism

Behavior Planning for Autonomous Driving: Methodologies, Applications, and Future Orientation

A simulation study of cooperative and autonomous vehicles (CAV) considering courtesy, ethics, and fairness

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