(Solved) Assignment on IT Ethics

Running head: TOPICS IN IT ETHICS
TOPICS In IT Ethics: The jobs killer is coming: How driverless trucks could change
Australia
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1TOPICS IN IT ETHICS
The jobs killer is coming: How driverless trucks could change
1. Introduction
The chosen article discusses an ethical situation that can arise with the use of driverless
trucks in Australia. Use of autonomous vehicle is expected to make a large number of people
jobless. Not only the jobs of the truck drivers that will be at stake, the jobs of the business
associated with the truck drivers will be at stake by this move as well. This is because the robot
truck drivers do not need food or sleep and therefore the businesses associated with the food
production of truck drivers such as road side food joint can cafes will run out of business as well.
It therefore becomes very essential to evaluate whether the use driverless trucks is ethical or not.
The different researches prove that practically all the goods that are produced in Australia are
needed to be transported to the final customers ( NewsComAu, 2018). This needs a huge number
of truck and truck drivers. Therefore if the autonomous vehicles or driverless trucks replace the
human truck drivers, it is quite expected that quite a number of people will eventually lose their
job. Furthermore it is very essential to evaluate whether it is completely safe to use robots in
place of drivers as even a small machinery fault or fault in the analysis of the robots can risk the
human lives as well. Therefore an ethical dilemma arises on the use of driverless trucks as it
could be a job killer and can risk the lives of people as well.
2. Utilitarianism Theory
The current ethical theory is analysed on basis of the utilitarianism theory. Utilitarianism
theory can be defined as that ethical theory that judges the right and wrong of an action by its
consequence (Mill, 2016). Utilitarianism is therefore a consequence based ethical theory whether
the ethical nature of a situation is measured by the amount of the happiness produced. The

2TOPICS IN IT ETHICS
Utilitarians such as Jeremy Bentham believes that all people desire happiness and that happiness
is an intrinsic good that is desired for someone’s own sake. Therefore, one situation would be
ethical only if it brings good for a larger amount of people (Shapiro, Stefkovich & Gutierrez,
2014).
Since according to the theory of utilitarianism, an act or the situation is ethically correct
only if it does good to the greater amount of people. Since the researches prove that almost all
goods that are produced in Australia are needed to be transported to the final customer it is
obvious that a large number of people are associated with the job of drivers. Therefore using
driverless trucks will not bring a greater good for a large number of people and therefore,
according to the theory of utilitarianism, the current situation is unethical. Not only the job of the
truck drivers which is at stake, the jobs of the business associated with the trucks drivers will be
at stake as well. Therefore this situation cannot have an ethical justification and therefore, the
Australian government should rethink about their decision of using and promoting driverless
trucks.
3. Deontology Theory
Deontology ethics or deontology theory is mainly based on the normative ethical position
that judges the morality of an action based on certain rules. This theory further establishes that
the all individuals will be treated as ends in themselves and never merely as a means to the end.
Therefore, this theory of ethics considerably differs from the utilitarianism theory as it focuses
on the rightness or wrongness of the actions itself irrespective of its consequence.
Therefore, evaluation on basis of the deontology theory of ethics, the current situation
may not be unethical (Lefkowitz, 2017). This is because the use of the driverless truck is being