To Drive, Or Not To Drive, That Is The Question
I’ve been thinking a bit today about self driving cars. My hesitation towards them is not so much from a technological perspective, but from a moral one. Take the following hypothetical scenario.:
I’m driving my car down the road at a fast clip on a 2 lane. Traffic is heavy in the other direction, and there’s a row of trees to my right at the curb. Suddenly a pedestrian appears in the road. Clearly, even slamming the brakes, It’s too late to stop. A high speed impact will occur, which is almost certain to result in someone’s death. Here in my view, are my 3 best choices:
I’m driving my car down the road at a fast clip on a 2 lane. Traffic is heavy in the other direction, and there’s a row of trees to my right at the curb. Suddenly a pedestrian appears in the road. Clearly, even slamming the brakes, It’s too late to stop. A high speed impact will occur, which is almost certain to result in someone’s death. Here in my view, are my 3 best choices:
1) Save myself, slam the brakes (too late, remember) and run the pedestrian down. After all, it's their fault in the first place, jumping out on a busy street without looking, right? Pretty good result for me, except for the lifelong self guilt. Not at all good for the dead Pedestrian.
2) Swerve left, side swiping cars going in the other direction. High chance of head on collision or ricochet into pedestrian anyway. Possibly killing more people including myself.
3) Swerve right, resulting in a head on collision into a tree. Saves everyone, except me. I most likely die, sacrificing myself in order to save everyone else. The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, or the 1, and all that.
Yes, there may be other options, that might, or might not occur to me in the split second I would have to make a decision, but of these three, I’d like to think that I WOULD CHOOSE to sacrifice myself to save others. Is that the choice the self driving car will make? Or would it choose to save me at all costs? What if the pedestrian was a child, or a baby?
Its not so easy an answer “hypothetically”, is it? All I know, is that with the steering wheel in my hands, I’m confident at that moment, that I would make the right choice, whatever that may be. I’m not as confident at this time, leaving that choice up to a pre-programmed machine.
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