Self-driving cars are beginning to make their way onto the nation’s highways, and with their introduction, complex ethical issues have emerged. Engineers need to consider how self-driving cars will interact with one another and with other technological and nontechnological facets of the external environment. Engineers need to start looking beyond the codes of ethics when it comes to self-driving cars and proactively create strategies for protecting the public. This session will outline and discuss several key ethical issues related to the design and use of self-driving cars. The session will also discuss smaller-scale issues involving a singular self-driving car, such as the “Trolley Problem,” and larger-scale issues involving interactions between different models of self-driving cars, and between the technology and the external environment.
Learning Objectives
•Describe key micro-level issues at the intersection of ethics and the self-driving car;
•Describe key macro-level issues at the intersection of ethics and the self-driving car;
•Discuss ethical responsibilities engineers have pertaining to the design and use of a self-driving car.
Learning Objectives
• Describe key micro-level issues at the intersection of ethics and the self-driving car
• Describe key macro-level issues at the intersection of ethics and the self-driving car
• Discuss ethical responsibilities engineers have pertaining to the design and use of a self-driving car
Jason Borenstein is the director of graduate research ethics programs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the associate director of the school’s Center for Ethics and Technology. His appointment is divided between the School of Public Policy and the Office of Graduate Studies. He is an assistant editor of the journal Science and Engineering Ethics, co-editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s Ethics and Information Technology section, and an editorial board member of the journal Accountability in Research. Borenstein is also the leader of the Research Ethics Editorial Board and a member of the Engineering Ethics Editorial Board for the National Academy of Engineering's Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science. Borenstein’s research interests include bioethics, engineering ethics, robot ethics, and research ethics.
He holds an M.A. and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Miami. He has a B.S. degree in biology from Emory University.
Keith Miller is the Orthwein Endowed Professor for Lifelong Learning in the Sciences at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. His research interests include computer ethics, software testing, and technology in education. Miller’s community partner is the Saint Louis Science Center, where he explores using technology in informal education, and the ethics of robots and other sophisticated machines. Recent publications include work on ethical issues involving self-driving cars, artificial agents that make decisions, and augmented reality. Miller is a member of a committee revising the Association for Computing Machinery code of ethics and is an active member of the IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology.