Can Ethical Issues with Autonomous Cars Be Adequately Addressed for Public

Use?

Luke Yardley

Weber State

English 2015

Julia Goff and Justin Kani

Autonomous vehicles are a concept that has been only a dream for many years, but in our

current day and age with ever growing technology at our fingertips this dream has been brought

to life. However, this innovation does have various setbacks, and these come in the form of

several ethical issues. Several of these ethical predicaments include whether an autonomous car

will place the life of the passenger or pedestrian first and whether the passenger is liable for any

accidents or the car manufacturer. Based on both main issues, it is clear the many of the issues

with bringing autonomous vehicles to the public deal with Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) ethical

problems. Yet despite these problems, with advanced technology and astute designing, ethical

issues can be mitigated to bring autonomous vehicles and the many benefits they bring to the

public transportation system. I believe that autonomous vehicles are a path to the future today

and that autonomous vehicles can be ethical thoughtful innovation. In this paper, I will discuss

various ethical that are problems for the autonomous vehicle transportation system integration,

and some solutions that companies have come up with and other ways ethical problems can be

solved. I will also discuss what autonomous vehicles are and how using them for the

transportation system will be beneficial for society.

balance of ethics will tip as the benefits autonomous cars will bring will far outweigh any

negatives they have. Based upon this statement, if autonomous cars are more beneficial than

detrimental to the transportation system then they should be integrated and are therefore an

ethical innovation that should be utilized by everyone.

What is an autonomous vehicle and how do they work?

An autonomous vehicle is often referred to as a driverless or self-driving car, which

mostly explains what it is. An autonomous vehicle is a vehicle that does not require a person as a

driver and instead relies on advanced technology utilizing sensors, cameras, and radar systems to

help the car drive. These things are required for the autonomous vehicle to be able to drive in its

own lane without crossing over and be able to identify other vehicles on the road. These are a

few of the innovations that have been created for the safety of passengers and others using

autonomous vehicles.

When a situation arises where a person would normally decide, instead an A.I. makes the

decision for the autonomous car. This isn’t necessarily a hyper advanced robot but merely an

algorithm for making the safest decision to speed up, brake, turn, and even avoid obstacles. This

algorithmic A.I. can control the entire autonomous vehicle and perceive its surroundings to

adjust such as if there is slick ice or rainy weather so it will know if it needs to slow down to

reach the destination in the safest way.

In a world that currently has few to no autonomous cars currently fielded, there must be

companies that are willing to produce and research these machines. The future of these companies

however, seems fairly bright as an article by Sunny Betz called 28 Self-Driving Car Companies You
Should Know states, “It’s been forecasted that by 2040, there will be over 33 million driverless

vehicles on the road”(Betz, 2021). This quote means that in the future there will be quite a few

autonomous vehicles in circulation, and they will have been sold for quite a bit. Some of the main

companies that are currently researching and producing autonomous vehicles include Tesla, General

Motors, Waymo, AutoX, and many others as well.

Why do we need autonomous vehicles in the transportation system?

Autonomous vehicles have been gaining significant attention and investment for several

compelling reasons, all of which emphasize the need for their integration into the transportation

system. An ordinary person may wonder what reasons they would have for needing to get an

autonomous vehicle, but it is rather surprising the great number of benefits autonomous vehicles

would bring to the transportation system.

The first thing autonomous vehicles bring to the table that is a clear benefit is being able

to take people who cannot drive themselves to destinations. The article Benefits and Costs of

Autonomous Trucks and Cars stated, “older people, people with disabilities and those without

driving licenses can benefit from being able to ride in an autonomous car” (Andersson &

Ivehammar, 2019). This means that elderly and those who have not yet received a drivers license

can get to places that they need to without inconveniencing anyone to drive for them or taking

public transit.

A second benefit that autonomous vehicles have is helping with the flow of traffic and

potentially negating the need for traffic lights and stop signs. Now this may sound far-fetched,

but if in the future society is made up solely of autonomous vehicles, who all know each other’s

location and can time perfectly when each other vehicle will turn and where their destination is
they will be able to maximize the effectiveness of using the road. However, this may be a benefit

that could be difficult to obtain as for this to be effective most vehicles on the road in a

community would need to be autonomous. This is still a possible benefit, but likely further into

the future of autonomous vehicles than simple integration.

Another undervalued reason that autonomous cars can benefit society is through better

urban city planning optimization. As an autonomous car does not need a passenger to drive, it

could drop off a passenger and then proceed to park in a different location by itself. This itself

can save time for a passenger and some stress of finding parking, but it also can benefit

businesses and urban life. With autonomous vehicles parking lots would not need to be present

on location but could be at another more convenient location that is nearby but could be some

distance away. This benefits both the normal citizen and the building owners of the future urban

cities.

One final reason that an ordinary driver would want autonomous vehicles to be the main

vehicle on the road is that human error would become a minimum. As a human, it is hard to

admit but humans do make various lethal mistakes in our existence. Some of these include

distracted driving and drunk driving. With autonomous vehicles that can make split-second

decisions the human error is taken out of the scenario and accidents are far less likely to happen.

However, accidents would not be completely unavoidable, as they are A.I. decisions and

machines are not always perfect, and this ties into the ethical issues of autonomous vehicles.

What is the trolley problem and how does it relate to autonomous vehicles?

The classical trolley problem is an ethical and philosophical moral problem where a

person is on a trolley and faced with two undesirable decisions. In the original problem, you are
on a speeding trolley that cannot stop, and the two decisions is to allow the trolley to move

forward hitting five people, fatally wounding them, or changing the route of the trolley to

actively hit one person. Based on this the question it poses is that is it ethical to actively kill one

person to save five and what is the complex value of human life and the ethics of causing

intentional harm.

This may seem like just another ethical problem, but it pertains to autonomous vehicles in

a clear way. If an accident occurs, in a scenario such as a pedestrian becomes in the way of an

autonomous vehicle, does the autonomous vehicle act in favor of the pedestrian or the passengers

safety? In that scenario the trolley problem has been replicated but instead of a human choosing

which path the trolley takes, the autonomous vehicle A.I. gets to decide. So which option does

the autonomous vehicle choose? This is one of the essential questions and ethical issues that

autonomous vehicles face currently.

With the trolley problem being placed before the A.I., some may wonder how it makes its

decision. In order to understand what decision the A.I. will make, we must understand A.I.

Artificial intelligence does not necessarily think for itself, but is programmed to think in a certain

way. So does this mean the the manufacturing companies get to decide which decision the

autonomous vehicle makes? The answer to that is essentially yes, but with exceptions. Many

companies want to avoid as much controversial ethical issues if possible, and turn to public

opinion to see what the general consensus on the ethical issue would be. In the article Ethical

issues in focus by the autonomous vehicles industry it states, “It has been reported that people

approve and would likeothers to buy utilitarian AVs which sacrifice their passengers for the

greater good, yetprefer to ride in AVs that protect their passengers at all costs thus disapproving

utilitarianregulation of Avs” (Martinho et al., 2021, pg 5). This quote essentially means that
while most people believe that it would be ethically correct for the pedestrian to be protected, if

that person was riding in an autonomous vehicle, they would want the A.I. to act in their own

self-interest by hitting the pedestrian.

So, for this ethical issue which is the right option for the autonomous vehicle A.I. to

make? There is no good option as in both cases human life is harmed. And if there is no good

option, many people may think that perhaps it is best not to use autonomous vehicles at all.

However, this is not the case. Autonomous vehicles may be better suited to this as human error is

more likely to cause accidents and harm life than an autonomous vehicle. Automous vehicle

manufacturers are going to want to avoid ethical problems like this as much as possible, so their

solution is simply to get good enough technology onto the autonomous vehicles that this is not

even a question of an accident happening and that the likelihood of this trolley problem scenario

is so low that it won’t even be questioned whether or not autonomous vehicle integration into the

transportation system is ethical or not.

What are the other ethical issues with autonomous vehicles?

One of the first ethical issues that comes up outside of the trolley problem is that if and

when an autonomous vehicle accident will inevitably happen, who is at fault for the accident?

The guilty parties could be the manufacturer, the vehicle owner, the software engineer, or another

related party. Legal conditions are an ethical challenge within the autonomous vehicle industry

and the must be put forth to increase accountability in the industry and bring justice to

autonomous vehicle accident victims.

Another ethical issue that could be alarming to some is what happens if autonomous

vehicles are successful in their integration into the transportation system? The answer to this is
unfortunately that many jobs will begin to dissipate and less job opportunities will be available in

the driving industry. Some that will be affected by this change would be truckers, taxicab drivers,

mail trucks drivers, and delivery drivers. The article Preparing U.S. Workers and Employers for

an Autonomous Vehicle Future talks about how “limitations in the effectiveness of short-term

adjustments can have negative consequences for the individuals and communities first affected.”

(Groshen et al., n.d. p. 21). This means that those who have these jobs currently may find

themselves being replaced by autonomous vehicle A.I. as drivers and find it hard to find work as

a similar worker. They will likely be forced into a different profession as autonomous vehicles

will be able to preform their tasks just as easily with less cost to the users of the services that the

workers would normally provide.

Some of the other minimal but still prevalent ethical issues are data and privacy security,

transparency in programming algorithms, and economic impacts. Data and privacy can be issues

as autonomous vehicles are using technology that could potentially be hacked, which could cause

issues for the user of an autonomous vehicle as their information such as location could become

compromised. As for the algorithms used in the autonomous vehicle A.I., users of autonomous

vehicles may not know how decisions are made as these are kept private from the public. The

economic impacts for autonomous vehicles are significant as they would almost entirely place

normal automobiles out of service and disrupt the industry of human driven vehicles.

What is being done to fix these ethical issues?

In the previous topic, it may seem like there are quite a few ethical issues that come with

autonomous vehicles and that it may not be worth it for companies to pursue research and

development of autonomous vehicles, but there are various solutions that are being worked on to
bring this innovation to the community. Many of these can be clearly seen directly from these

companies, some examples from the popular company Tesla include advanced sensor coverage,

autopilot, smart summon, autosteer, and optimal route navigation (Tesla, 2021).

As far as some of the more complex ethical issues that are not mechanical such as the

impact on job opportunities and data privacy, the balance of ethics is in autonomous vehicles

favor. Autonomous vehicles are never going to require you to pay them extra money for taking

you a place outside of the use of their electric batteries and what the company utilizing them will

need. This will in fact open jobs as manufacturing companies for them become more popular.

The data privacy may be the only ethical issue that can be near unsolvable, but there are many

cybersecurity experts set on perfecting security for autonomous vehicle systems.

Conclusion

To conclude, there are many ethical challenges that come with autonomous vehicles and

perfecting them for integration into the transportation system, but these issues can be balanced

out with some thoughtful design and innovation. The amount of benefits that autonomous

vehicles bring to the transportation system greatly outweigh these few issues and will bring these

benefits for many people to use. This process will take a lot of creative people and company

investment, but not far in the future autonomous vehicles could become the main transportation

device because the ethical issues currently facing them can be adequately addressed for their use

in the public. Autonomous vehicles are key piece of technology that if handled correctly can

elevate all of society if used ethically.

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