Exploring Ethical Dilemmas of Self-Driving Cars: A Kantian Analysis

This essay examines the ethical issues and social implications of self-driving cars, focusing on the application of Kantian ethics to address moral dilemmas and decision-making processes. It explores key concerns such as liability in the event of accidents, the capacity of autonomous vehicles to make complex ethical choices, and the potential conflicts between adherence to rules and the need for situational judgment. The essay discusses arguments both for and against the use of self-driving cars, considering the limitations of human drivers versus the potential for programmed biases in automated systems. Ultimately, it concludes that while the technology is still developing, its future depends on the optimization of both vehicle technology and traffic regulations, along with the need for ethical programming and public trust. The essay emphasizes the importance of collaboration between car manufacturers and governments to ensure the safe and ethical deployment of self-driving cars, highlighting the need for the technology to strictly adhere to traffic laws and regulations to prevent accidents and promote safety.

Ethics and social issues
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Introduction
Automation and accuracy of vehicles has developed at a very rapid rate in the past millennium. It
has mirrored many improvements in the knowledge of automobiles, especially in the sectors of
cars regarding sensing and processing. Media coverage has mostly focused on the calculated
safety merits from the automation and accuracy of the cars which has led to innovation and
manufacturing of self-driving cars. The application of computer technology in the cars is
anticipated to be more precise, predictable and attentive than the human drivers (Corey, et al.,
2014). The ethical issues that are arising due to the operation of self-driving cars are mentioned
very less. It is a fact that road vehicle travelling at any speed definitely involves risk to a certain
degree, even in the case of the self-driving cars which are controlled by computer with
hardware that is free of failure and perfect sensing abilities.
Thesis Statement
To find out the importance of accuracy and automation in self-driving cars with Kantianism
theory
Ethical Issues
A completely automated self-driving car needs to constantly decide the ways in which the
allocation of risk with the oversight of any human driver would be done. Use of the self-driving
cars would have several ethical issues in regards to making complex decisions which further
denotes to the safety concerns regarding use of automated vehicles (Fowler, 2016). The first
issue is regarding liability as it is presently not clear that who would be accountable to be at fault
in the case where crash of a vehicle occurs due to self-driving. The second issue is regarding the
capability of self-driving cars for making complex decisions involving ethics while driving,
mostly prior to crash. Driving at any reasonable speed can never be predicted to be completely
safe.
A fully trailer of loaded tractor travelling at 100 km/ hour needs calculative 8 seconds to arrive
to a complete stop while a passenger vehicle like a car would require approximately three
seconds (Gibson, 2016). Complete safe travel needs very accurate calculations and prediction of
other behavior of vehicle of over the particular frame of time which is something that is not

possible provided the close proximities of the vehicles. In order to ensure the safety of all, the
self-driving cars must be capable of assessing risks continuously which includes the risk of
driving on a curve at a certain speed, risks of side-swiping a vehicle travelling adjacently for
avoiding the closing in on a runaway truck, and crossing of the centerline for passing a cyclist.
The programmer in the self-driven cars must make a decision regarding the extent of risk that
can be accepted for both the adjacent vehicles and it. It has to be noted that if the risk is minimal
and acceptable, it must make a decision regarding how to mitigate the particular risk among the
parties that were affected. Such ethical situations and issues must decide by the self-driven car
due to the constraints during the crash (Kolk, 2016).
Self-Driving Car as per Kantianism theory
Arguments for the affirmative
The self-driven cars will encounter the situations in which they have to decide where the
“correct” action is legally or morally ambiguous. In such situation, the self-driven cars definitely
integrate a method for determining the ethical action. It is to be noted that the experts in the
industry are very cautious regarding the designing if the self-driven cars and aspects if the self-
driven cars can ever eradicate all crashes (Reamer, 2013). Claims regarding the complete safety
are mostly based on the assumptions regarding the abilities of the self-driven cars and the
environments in which they operate. Such assumptions can be categorized into their cases: self-
driven cars with imperfect systems, self-driven cars with perfect systems which are made to
drive in the large traffic with the human drivers, and the self-driven cars with perfect systems
which are allowed to drive with other automated vehicles (Weiss, 2014). The industry experts
are very much aware of the above cases and design the self-driven cars accordingly. It can be
reasonable to be confident that the cars driven by humans can execute judgment in a wider extent
of dynamic situations and can be thus, declared to make ethical and wise decisions (Ritchie, et
al., 2013). Self-driven cars are new and innovative cars made with advanced technologies and
will not be programmed on breaking the law and order along with ethics in any case (Teson,
1992). It is a well-known fact that law and ethics mostly diverge and the good judgment can
compel any human being it act in an illegal manner. It is fact that self-driven cars do not happen
to break law in the mode of autonomous. If the self-driven cars faithfully follow regulations,

then they would refuse driving in that mode if any secondary party of the vehicle is broken
(Rupp, et al., 2015).
Arguments for the negative
On the other part of the argument, the fact that human rarely makes proper ethical decisions
while driving cars is also true. The human drivers may not always make ethical decisions while
driving on the road as they would generally tend to make their own way and convenience. In
situations where any man is late to the workplace or any other scenarios would generally make
unethical decision such as over speeding to a certain extent. This also holds true in the case of
any medical emergency (Turker & Altuntas, 2013). In the latter scenario the self-driven cars will
not understand the emergency of the situation and keep following the rules and ethics. According
to the Kantianism theory, the rightness or wrongness of any action or decision that is made by
the self-driven cars will not depend on the consequences but on the fulfillment of the duty that
the self-driven car is assigned to (Teson, 1992). Form such perspective; the self-driven cars will
drive according to their programming without giving any heed to the level of emergency of the
situation (Vitell, 2015).
Conclusion and Recommendation
The technology of the self-driven car is still under constant development. The point of time
when the advancement of technology in the both the cars and the regulation of traffic attains
optimization, self-driven cars may be completely allowed to be operated on the roads. On the
other hand, when many numbers of issues in the internal programming of the self-driven cars are
found, these cars should be banned as it would lead to huge disasters both to life and property.
The programming of the self-driven cars needs to be in sync with the ethical requirements and
need collaboration between the car manufacturers and the government. Convincing people for
ceding control of their loves in a self-driven car will require trust which will be materialized with
advancement of time and technology. Thus, due to the fact that the self-driven cars strictly would
follow the rules and laws of the traffic which would prevent any kind of accidents which mostly
the ethical concern, the use of self-driven cars is agreed.

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