Who Decides Who Dies? Ethical Analysis of Driverless Car Accidents

This case study delves into the ethical complexities surrounding accidents involving driverless cars. It begins with an introduction to autonomous vehicles, highlighting their advantages and the organizations developing them. The core of the report focuses on the ethical issues that arise, such as sensor failures, software vulnerabilities, and the difficult decisions that self-driving cars must make in the event of an accident. The study explores the implications of these ethical problems, particularly the questions of who should be saved and the value of human life versus property. Utilitarianism theory is presented as a possible framework for addressing these ethical dilemmas, with an analysis of how it can be applied to minimize harm. The case study concludes with recommendations, including the implementation of emergency braking systems and the application of the act utilitarianism theory in decision-making, offering a comprehensive look at the ethical challenges and potential solutions in the rapidly evolving field of autonomous vehicles.

ARGUMENT
VISUALISATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CASE STUDY TITLE.....................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ARGUMENT...................................................................................................................................1
Disadvantages..............................................................................................................................1
Ethical issues involved.................................................................................................................2
Implications of ethical problems..................................................................................................2
Ethical theories to ethical problems.............................................................................................2
Analysis of ethical situation and recommendations ....................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

CASE STUDY TITLE
Who decides who dies in driver less car accidents?
INTRODUCTION
Driver less cars are robotic or autonomous cars that are capable of sensing their
environment and move safely without harming anyone with little or no human efforts. Such
kinds of cars consist of various kinds of sensors like radar, GPS, measurement units and many
more, these sensors help them to perceive their surrounding in order to move safely (Lin, 2016).
Other than this, these driver-less cars have an automated control system that reads and interpret
these sensor informations, and use them to identify navigational paths so that they do not run on
any obstacle or any other vehicle. There are various organisations who are trying to launch their
own driver-less cars, companies like: Google, Audi, Tesla, Toyota etc. The main advantage of
these cars is that they ease human work and makes it much more easier for them to travel. This
report will lay emphasis on ethical issues involved with driver-less car, theories related to them
and analysis of the situation.
ARGUMENT
Disadvantages
There are various disadvantages of these driver-less cars such as: any kind of sensor
failure can result in major accident. Its software can be easily hacked due to which car's control
can go in someone else hands. Minor malfunction within the software can result in some major
or serious crash and if any kind of accident happens then a main ethical question arises that who
will be responsible for the accident (Nyholm & Smids, 2016). These are one of the major and
biggest security concerns associated with these driver-less cars. Other than this there are many
more disadvantages of driver-less cars such as: if they kind of software or sensor gets disturbed
then it will be quite costly for the car owner's to get it repaired and without repairing them the car
will be useless. So it can be said that maintenance and running of these cars is quite costly
(Hevelke & Nida-Rümelin, 2015). Privacy of an individual is another security concern associated
with these cars i.e. all the personal information and location of the car will be recorded by the
companies and if the system gets hacked then personal information of the owner of the car can
get hacked as well.
1

Ethical issues involved
Due to all such issues there are various kinds of ethical issues that arises that are involved
with these driver-less cars which creates some ethical questions and some critical situation in
which it becomes difficult for the car as well as car owners to take any kind of decision. One of
the main ethical issue associated with it is that in case of any system failure and accident, what
should these driver-less cars try to save expensive or wealthy item or human beings. It is one of
the biggest ethical issue that is needed to be considered as it has various sub ethical issues under
it that are needed to be considered (Borenstein, Herkert & Miller, 2017). If it is confirmed that
accident will happen at one side there is only one individual and other side there are group of
individuals them whom the car should focus on saving. Another ethical issue is which age group
or sex the car should focus on saving and whom it shouldn’t. Another issue is that if in case of
accident at one side complete car can get damaged and at another side there are few people
whom should the car focus on saving the people or get self damaged. It is one of the biggest
ethical issue as while designing the software systems it is important for the organisations to keep
all such ethical issues in mind and design the software accordingly (Gogoll & Müller, 2017). As
it is important for the organisations to understand and keep in mind to design driver-less software
in such a manner that it's software doesn't get corrupted and if it gets corrupted or its break fail
then accordingly its functioning should be designed.
Implications of ethical problems
This ethical problem has two implications: A) If people should be saved and vehicle or
other precious property should be damaged than a question will be raised that who will be paying
for the damaged that had been done. B) If vehicle or precious property should be saved and
people should be left to die then a question is raised that is human life that cheap that they should
be left to die. It is an important implication that should be focused on i.e. companies should focus
on cars and driver's safety or on other people's safety who are walking around or driving
(Bagloee & et.al. 2016). These two are the major implications that can create problems for the
driver, car as well as for the car companies. These two implications can be looked after or can be
solved through
Ethical theories to ethical problems
Ethical theory that can be used to this ethical problem is Utilitarianism theory. According
to this theory locus on wrong and right completely depend upon the outcome of choosing one
2

action over another action. There are two types of Utilitarianism theories and only one can be
used at a time: first is act Utilitarianism and another is rule Utilitarianism. Act Utilitarianism is
applied when each alternative acts as a situation of a choice and then on the basis of the best
outcomes, the best situation is chosen. Second is rule Utilitarianism theory which focuses on
choosing a situation which fits best and is valid on the basis of rules of conduct (Faulhaber &
et.al. 2019). If a situation fulfils all the rules and regulations then that situation should be chosen.
For this driver-less car accident ethical problem act Utilitarianism theory can be used. This
theory can work as a solution of this ethical problem. According to this theory if any kind of
accident chances occurs then the situation should be analysed and in the situation in which less
damage happens, that situation should be chosen other than this in case of non living things and
human beings, human beings should be given first priority. As per this theory if in case of an
accident driver-less car need to choose whether to save on passenger in the car or to save five
people in front of them. So, in this situation it should be seen that will be harmed less or will
have less impact of the accident. People while will be having drastic effect of the event should be
saved and people with less impact should be driver-less cars second priority (Borenstein, Herkert
& Miller, 2019). However, even using this theory ethical issue is not solved completely but this
theory somehow help in minimising its effect or resolved the ethical issue till some extent.
Analysis of ethical situation and recommendations
Using existing data analysis of ethical situation can be done: according to the above
ethical issues and implications of ethical issues it has been analysed that this ethical problem
cannot be completely solved but solution to this ethical problem is present. In case of driver-less
car accidental situation companies should be install emergency breaking system within the cars
which will come into picture when the main car breaks fails and an accidental situation is
created. If the emergency breaks are not present then act Utilitarianism theory should be applied
and decision should be made on the basis of few questions like: i) how many people will get
injured. ii) how much damage to the property will be caused. iii) how many passengers within
the car will get hurt and till what extent. Based on analysis of all of these questions decision
should be taken (Goodall, 2017). These questions and theory used will make is much more easier
to take decision of who should be saved and who shouldn't be saved.
So, on the basis of above analysis there are following recommendations that can be
adhered in order to resolve such ethical problem such as: In case breaks or system of driver-less
3

car fails then automatic control of the car should go into driver’s hand and emergency breaks
should be tried to be applied. If there are no emergency breaks then the situation which less
damage to the car and people moving around the car happens, such situation should be chooses
so that the impact of the accident can be reduced.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that driver-less car accidents involve various
kinds of ethical issues but the main issue involved with it is “Who decides who dies in driver less
car accidents?”. It is one of the main and biggest involved because in case of accident who
should be saved and who should not be saved. This issue can be solved through Act
utilitarianism.
4

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bagloee, S. A., & et.al. (2016). Autonomous vehicles: challenges, opportunities, and future
implications for transportation policies. Journal of modern transportation. 24(4). 284-
303.
Borenstein, J., Herkert, J. R., & Miller, K. W. (2019). Self-driving cars and engineering ethics:
the need for a system level analysis. Science and engineering ethics. 25(2). 383-398.
Borenstein, J., Herkert, J., & Miller, K. (2017). Self-driving cars: Ethical responsibilities of
design engineers. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. 36(2). 67-75.
Faulhaber, A. K., & et.al. (2019). Human decisions in moral dilemmas are largely described by
utilitarianism: Virtual car driving study provides guidelines for autonomous driving
vehicles. Science and engineering ethics. 25(2). 399-418.
Gogoll, J., & Müller, J. F. (2017). Autonomous cars: in favor of a mandatory ethics
setting. Science and engineering ethics. 23(3). 681-700.
Goodall, N. J. (2017). From trolleys to risk: Models for ethical autonomous driving.
Hevelke, A., & Nida-Rümelin, J. (2015). Responsibility for crashes of autonomous vehicles: an
ethical analysis. Science and engineering ethics. 21(3). 619-630.
Lin, P. (2016). Why ethics matters for autonomous cars. In Autonomous driving (pp. 69-85).
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Nyholm, S., & Smids, J. (2016). The ethics of accident-algorithms for self-driving cars: An
applied trolley problem?. Ethical theory and moral practice. 19(5). 1275-1289.
5