June 3: Self Driving Cars

 


Abstract: Choosing which choice to make as a programmer of a self-driving car when all choices in a dilemma are harmful. 

Today was our first STEM in Society class in which we were presented with the situation where we were a programmer of a company who recently developed a self-driving car. However, this car would face an accident where in front of it a semitruck carrying large boxes would suddenly lose hold of the boxes and without enough time to break before it crashes into the obstacles the car is placed in a state of dilemma where it could decide to...

Option Choices 
a) Swerve right and crash into the motorcycle 
b) Keep straight in the lane and crash into the obstacles
c) Swerve left and crash into the SUV


We as a programmer were asked which of the three options, we would program the car to do in this situation. 


My Solution 
Although all options entail harmful outcomes, I would choose to program the car to swerve left into the SUV as I see it as the most ethical way to ensure that the least harm comes to all parties involved. If the car were to hit the motorcycle at a high speed it would surely cause the motorcyclist to be severely harmed or even killed. If the car were to keep straight the driver would surely be heavily injured as well. But if the car were to hit the SUV that has a high passenger safety rating, then it would be a far lower chance that anyone gets injured unlike in the other scenarios. 


Further Thoughts 

After evaluating this scenario, I came to realize that one of the most prominent and concerning issues that arise with self-driving cars is that some drivers of the cars have an overreliance that the car will be able to adapt to any situation but in a case such as this the car might not make the morally or ethically right choice. The company of the car may overlook this factor as a way to make more sales off the car but as future programmers for the world we must be able to take into account these possibilities to ensure that the most moral and ethical choice is made by the car so that self-driving cars can become reliable enough to be the future surpassing and adapting better than humans can.








Comments

  1. Kristina GehrmanJune 13, 2024 at 11:35 AM

    I love the abstract you started with. It's super clear and super helpful for the reader. also, yeah, I tend to agree with you: the biggest risk lies with the ways in which human rely on, or fail to rely on, or over or under estimate, the power of technology to choose for us.

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