The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) should reduce traffic accidents, but they will sometimes have to choose between two evils, such as running over pedestrians or sacrificing themselves and their passenger to save the pedestrians. Defining the algorithms that will help AVs make these moral decisions is a form...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134654 |
| _version_ | 1811089719708090368 |
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| author | Bonnefon, J-F Shariff, A Rahwan, I |
| author_facet | Bonnefon, J-F Shariff, A Rahwan, I |
| author_sort | Bonnefon, J-F |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Autonomous vehicles (AVs) should reduce traffic accidents, but they will sometimes have to choose between two evils, such as running over pedestrians or sacrificing themselves and their passenger to save the pedestrians. Defining the algorithms that will help AVs make these moral decisions is a formidable challenge. We found that participants in six Amazon Mechanical Turk studies approved of utilitarian AVs (that is, AVs that sacrifice their passengers for the greater good) and would like others to buy them, but they would themselves prefer to ride in AVs that protect their passengers at all costs. The study participants disapprove of enforcing utilitarian regulations for AVs and would be less willing to buy such an AV. Accordingly, regulating for utilitarian algorithms may paradoxically increase casualties by postponing the adoption of a safer technology. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:23:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/134654 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:23:38Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1346542021-10-28T03:37:15Z The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles Bonnefon, J-F Shariff, A Rahwan, I Autonomous vehicles (AVs) should reduce traffic accidents, but they will sometimes have to choose between two evils, such as running over pedestrians or sacrificing themselves and their passenger to save the pedestrians. Defining the algorithms that will help AVs make these moral decisions is a formidable challenge. We found that participants in six Amazon Mechanical Turk studies approved of utilitarian AVs (that is, AVs that sacrifice their passengers for the greater good) and would like others to buy them, but they would themselves prefer to ride in AVs that protect their passengers at all costs. The study participants disapprove of enforcing utilitarian regulations for AVs and would be less willing to buy such an AV. Accordingly, regulating for utilitarian algorithms may paradoxically increase casualties by postponing the adoption of a safer technology. 2021-10-27T20:06:01Z 2021-10-27T20:06:01Z 2016 2019-07-25T13:12:03Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134654 en 10.1126/SCIENCE.AAF2654 Science Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Bonnefon, J-F Shariff, A Rahwan, I The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles |
| title | The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles |
| title_full | The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles |
| title_fullStr | The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles |
| title_full_unstemmed | The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles |
| title_short | The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles |
| title_sort | social dilemma of autonomous vehicles |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134654 |
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