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The technology is new, but the moral conundrum isn't: A self-driving car identifies a group of children running into the road. There is no time to stop. To swerve around them would drive the car into a speeding truck on one side or over a cliff on the other, bringing certain death to anybody inside.
To anyone pushing for a future for autonomous cars, this question has become the elephant in the room, argued over incessantly by lawyers, regulators, and ethicists; it has even been at the center of a human study by Science. Happy to have their names kept in the background of the life-or-death drama, most carmakers have let Google take the lead while making passing reference to ongoing research, investigations, or discussions.
But not Mercedes-Benz. Not anymore.
The world's oldest car maker no longer sees the problem, similar to the question from 1967 known as the Trolley Problem, as unanswerable. Rather than tying itself into moral and ethical knots in a crisis, Mercedes-Benz simply intends to program its self-driving cars to save the people inside the car. Every time.
Is it really a decision based on morality, or because choosing to save the pedestrians is much harder to code?
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:09AM
Bullshit! They're walking because they choose to. Even my small town (50,000) has very low cost public transit.
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:29AM
Let's see the demographic data for your small town, and then the ridership statistics. Let's see if the poorest blackest people all ride the bus. And oh yeah, shitbrain. Have YOU ridden the bus lately? Or ever? And here's a question to blow your fucking mind, asswipe. When was the last time you gave more than a dollar to a beggar on the bus? I did, Monday of this week.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:33AM
When was the last time you gave more than a dollar to a beggar on the bus? I did, Monday of this week.
That was you? Thanks, AC, you made my day!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:37AM
You're welcome, and I hope the sandwich you bought with the money was a good one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @08:07AM
You're welcome, and I hope the crackrock you bought with the money was a good one.
FTFY
(Score: 2) by nukkel on Wednesday October 12 2016, @05:09PM
I'll have you know, that dollar will go fully towards maintaining his alcohol consumption habit.
Good on you!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 12 2016, @07:42AM
So, in your small town, everyone can drive from their front porch, to the office, and never walk in traffic, even to cross the street?
We are ALL pedestrians. Unless you're a Trump or a Clinton, you walk. Doesn't matter much that you only have to walk ten miles per week, versus some poor slob who walks 100 miles every week. The real question here is, who has the right of way, vehicles or pedestrians?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @09:20AM
It's the same as the question, "Who has the right of way, the Ford or the Toyota?" And the answer is the same: "It depends on what they are doing."
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday October 12 2016, @09:31AM
We are ALL pedestrians.
But some pedestrians are more equal than others. Think in terms of risk.
Account abandoned.