ITC506 Topics in Information Technology Ethics - CSU

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY
The jobs killer is coming: How driverless trucks could change Australia
Assignment 3: Applying Ethical Theory
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Word Count: 1500

The jobs killer is coming: How driverless trucks could change Australia
1. Introduction
This news article talks about an advanced technological innovation that would
bring a change in Australia. This article is about the introduction and use of
trucks that are automated or driverless. This introduction was expected to
change the society and create a negative impact on the community of
Australia. The release date of this article was May, 2016. This article tried to
convey a message that said that this technological invention would devastate
and harm the community and society in Australia (NewsComAu, 2017). This
invention would lead to the loss of several jobs of the drivers who used to
drive trucks in Australia. They will become jobless. Not only will it affect the
jobs of the drivers but also it will affect the businesses that are running on the
highways and roads where the trucks pass by. The stations that are present
there for providing services, petrol and also food stalls and motels will be
affected. The transport sector has a great influence on the GDP of this
country, Australia. This essay focuses on this article and describes the ethical
implications based on certain classical theories of ethics. This essay points
out whether this technological invention is ethically correct in terms of virtue,
utilitarianism, contract as well as deontology theories of ethics. This essay
gives reasonable explanations for assessing the case under these four
classical ethics theories.
2. Utilitarianism Theory
The Utilitarianism Theory is one of the four classical theories of ethics. This
theory mainly deals with the happiness that is generated in everyone due to
some action or activity. According to this theory, if any activity or policy that
is enacted by society is considered to be correct morally or ethically correct if
that act or policy is responsible for generating the highest level of happiness
among most of the people (Arntzenius, 2014). This article gives a clear idea
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The jobs killer is coming: How driverless trucks could change Australia
that this advanced technology of introducing automated or driverless trucks
will cause huge negative impacts on the people or citizen living in Australia.
The unemployment level will rise in the country. The drivers who used to be
hired for driving trucks would become completely jobless. There are several
businesses that have connection with the trucks. The businesses that exist in
the highways and roads will be badly affected. There are motels in the
highways. Many people get hired in these motels to serve the travellers as
well as the drivers. There are petrol pump stations as well as service stations.
There are cafes present in the highway and along the road. Introduction of
this technology will also take away the jobs of the people working in the
cafes, motels, service stations as well as petrol pump stations. Hence it can
be clearly seen that there are many number of people who will be
disappointed and unhappy. This invention of driverless trucks will not be able
to generate happiness among maximum people. Rather it will devastate the
entire community of Australia. The community will be ripped off (Vaughn,
2015). The entire country will be under chaos. Another issue that is taken into
account in this context is the safety issue. There can be several situations
that can occur in the road. An automated system cannot know the solution of
every situation or incident that takes place. Technology has many faults in it.
It cannot be 100 per cent error free. Faulty system can cause huge loss.
Consider a situation where many people come in the front of truck and in this
case the automated truck will have to take the side but there are trees on
both sides. This leads to ethical issue (Niebuhr, 2013). Here the Utilitarianism
Theory will suggest taking a decision where it will make most people happy.
But it is unethical to compromise the life of the passenger in order to save so
many people.
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