Self-Driving Links

Self Driving Cars

Better than Humans at going straight, 5X worse at turns, 2X worse at night

A matched case-control analysis of autonomous vs human-driven vehicle accidents - Nature…

On average, there are 9.1 self-driving car accidents per million miles driven, while the same rate is 4.1 crashes per million miles for regular vehicles.

The Dangers of Driverless Cars

Maybe Waymo and Cruise are better than Humans

Are self-driving cars already safer than human drivers?

But maybe Cruise and Waymo ARE humans?

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/06/cruise-confirms-robotaxis-rely-on-human-assistance-every-4-to-5-miles.html

How Self-Driving Cars Get Help From Humans Hundreds of Miles Away

One solution for ethical safe driving cars — they should just follow the law

Designing Ethical Self-Driving Cars

The ethical dilemma of self driving cars

The Moral Machine Book -

The Car That Knew Too Much

Take the Moral Machine Test

Moral Machine

Scenarios for class:

Three Scenarios with Self-Driving Vehicles

SCENARIO 1: TWO MODELS OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLESBASED ON A SCENARIO DESCRIBED IN JASON BORENSTEIN, JOSEPH R. HERKERT, AND KEITH W. MILLER. “SELF-DRIVING CARS AND ENGINEERING ETHICS: THE NEED FOR A SYSTEM LEVEL ANALYSIS.” SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING ETHICS (2017): 1–16.

A car with level 3 driving automation (“Car A”) is on a highway and is seeking to move onto an off-ramp; being level 3 entails that an automated system can control the car’s operation but the human driver is supposed to supervise the car at all times.

A second car (“Car B”) is traveling on the on-ramp and is seeking to merge onto the highway in the same location as where Car A is. Car B contains level 4 automation which entails that its automated system is designed to operate, at least at times, without direct human supervision.

Assume that the two cars are almost exactly parallel.

Version A: The cars cannot communicate with one another and they collide.

Version B: The cars are capable of communicating with one another through vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V) but they still collide.

Questions for Consideration:

1. To what extent does each of the following bear moral responsibility for the accident?

• The designer of Car A
• The driver of Car A
• The designer of Car B
• The designer of the V2V system
• Regulatory agencies or officials
• Other

2. What could have been different to reduce the chances of this kind of accident happening?

SCENARIO 2: AN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE AND A RIGHT-HAND TURN

A level 4 self-driving car is trying to turn right at an intersection. It has a green arrow from a traffic light. However, a pedestrian is trying to cross through the intersection where the car is trying to turn even though the pedestrian does not have a walk signal. Due to the car’s detection sensors, it hesitates to turn right and therefore the pedestrian decides to cross. While halted, the self-driving car gets rear ended by a standard (non-autonomous) car.

Questions for Consideration:

1. To what extent does each of the following bear moral responsibility for the accident?

• The pedestrian
• The self-driving car
• The designer of the self-driving car
• The driver of the standard car
• Regulatory agencies or officials
• Other

2. What could have been different to reduce the chances of this kind of accident happening?

SCENARIO 3: AN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE AND CENTRALIZED INTERSECTION MANAGEMENT

Several different types of vehicles are approaching an automated intersection. Vehicles are dispatched through the intersection by a centralized management system. The vehicles approaching the intersection include:

• A level 3 self-driving car
• A motorcycle

Being level 3 entails that an automated system can control the car’s operation, but the human driver is supposed to supervise the car at all times.

The weather is inclement, which inhibits visibility and the automated intersection controls are starting to fail. The driver of the level 3 car is alerted to take over control of the car’s operation, but the driver is distracted by texting. Features in the motorcycle allow it to communicate with intersection controls, but the motorcyclist chooses to ignore the instructions from the intersection’s automated system to slow down. Instead, the motorcyclist decides to speed up while approaching the intersection. The level 3 car collides with the motorcycle, and the motorcyclist is seriously injured.

Questions for Consideration:

1. To what extent does each of the following bear moral responsibility for the accident?

• The driver of the level 3 self-driving car
• The designer of the level 3 self-driving car
• The motorcyclist
• The designer of the intersection’s centralized management system
• Regulatory agencies or officials
• Other

2. What could have been different to reduce the chances of this kind of accident happening?