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Obviously, self-driving cars aren't perfect, so imagine that the Google car (as an example) got into a difficult situation.

Here are a few examples of unfortunate situations caused by a set of events:

• The car is heading toward a crowd of 10 people crossing the road, so it cannot stop in time, but it can avoid killing 10 people by hitting the wall (killing the passengers),
• Avoiding killing the rider of the motorcycle considering that the probability of survival is greater for the passenger of the car,
• Killing an animal on the street in favour of a human being,
• Purposely changing lanes to crash into another car to avoid killing a dog,

And here are a few dilemmas:

• Does the algorithm recognize the difference between a human being and an animal?
• Does the size of the human being or animal matter?
• Does it count how many passengers it has vs. people in the front?
• Does it "know" when babies/children are on board?
• Does it take into the account the age (e.g. killing the older first)?

How would an algorithm decide what should it do from the technical perspective? Is it being aware of above (counting the probability of kills), or not (killing people just to avoid its own destruction)?

Related articles:

• Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill
• How to Help Self-Driving Cars Make Ethical Decisions

Obviously, self-driving cars aren't perfect, so imagine that the Google car (as an example) got into a difficult situation.

Here are a few examples of unfortunate situations caused by a set of events:

• The car is heading toward a crowd of 10 people crossing the road, so it cannot stop in time, but it can avoid killing 10 people by hitting the wall (killing the passengers),
• Avoiding killing the rider of the motorcycle considering that the probability of survival is greater for the passenger of the car,
• Killing an animal on the street in favour of a human being,
• Purposely changing lanes to crash into another car to avoid killing a dog,

And here are a few dilemmas:

• Does the algorithm recognize the difference between a human being and an animal?
• Does the size of the human being or animal matter?
• Does it count how many passengers it has vs. people in the front?
• Does it "know" when babies/children are on board?
• Does it take into the account the age (e.g. killing the older first)?

How would an algorithm decide what it should do from the technical perspective? Is it being aware of above (counting the probability of kills), or not (killing people just to avoid its own destruction)? 

Related articles:

• Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill
• How to Help Self-Driving Cars Make Ethical Decisions

Obviously, self-driving cars aren't perfect, so imagine that the Google car (as an example) got into a difficult situation.

Here are a few examples of unfortunate situations caused by a set of events:

• The car is heading toward a crowd of 10 people crossing the road, so it cannot stop in time, but it can avoid killing 10 people by hitting the wall (killing the passengers),
• Avoiding killing the rider of the motorcycle considering that the probability of survival is greater for the passenger of the car,
• Killing an animal on the street in favour of a human being,
• Changing lanes to crash into another car to avoid killing a dog,

And here are a few dilemmas:

• Does the algorithm recognize the difference between a human being and an animal?
• Does the size of the human being or animal matter?
• Does it count how many passengers it has vs. people in the front?
• Does it "know" when babies/children are on board?
• Does it take into the account the age (e.g. killing the older first)?

How would an algorithm decide what should it do from the technical perspective? Is it being aware of above (counting the probability of kills), or not (killing people just to avoid its own destruction)?

Related articles:

• Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill
• How to Help Self-Driving Cars Make Ethical Decisions

Obviously, self-driving cars aren't perfect, so imagine that the Google car (as an example) got into a difficult situation.

Here are a few examples of unfortunate situations caused by a set of events:

• The car is heading toward a crowd of 10 people crossing the road, so it cannot stop in time, but it can avoid killing 10 people by hitting the wall (killing the passengers),
• Avoiding killing the rider of the motorcycle considering that the probability of survival is greater for the passenger of the car,
• Killing an animal on the street in favour of a human being,
• Purposely changing lanes to crash into another car to avoid killing a dog,

And here are a few dilemmas:

• Does the algorithm recognize the difference between a human being and an animal?
• Does the size of the human being or animal matter?
• Does it count how many passengers it has vs. people in the front?
• Does it "know" when babies/children are on board?
• Does it take into the account the age (e.g. killing the older first)?

How would an algorithm decide what should it do from the technical perspective? Is it being aware of above (counting the probability of kills), or not (killing people just to avoid its own destruction)?

Related articles:

• Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill
• How to Help Self-Driving Cars Make Ethical Decisions

Obviously, driverless cars aren't perfect, so imagine that the Google car (as an example) got into a difficult situation.

Here are a few examples of unfortunate situations caused by a set of events:

• The car is heading toward a crowd of 10 people crossing the road, so it cannot stop in time, but it can avoid killing 10 people by hitting the wall (killing the passengers),
• Avoiding killing the rider of the motorcycle considering that the probability of survival is greater for the passenger of the car,
• Killing an animal on the street in favour of a human being,
• Changing lanes to crash into another car to avoid killing a dog,

And here are few dilemmas:

• Does the algorithm recognize the difference between a human being and an animal?
• Does the size of the human being or animal matter?
• Does it count how many passengers it has vs. people in the front?
• Does it "know" when babies/children are on board?
• Does it take into the account the age (e.g. killing the older first)?

How would an algorithm decide what should it do from the technical perspective? Is it being aware of above (counting the probability of kills), or not (killing people just to avoid its own destruction)?

Related articles:

• Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill
• How to Help Self-Driving Cars Make Ethical Decisions

Obviously, self-driving cars aren't perfect, so imagine that the Google car (as an example) got into a difficult situation.

Here are a few examples of unfortunate situations caused by a set of events:

• The car is heading toward a crowd of 10 people crossing the road, so it cannot stop in time, but it can avoid killing 10 people by hitting the wall (killing the passengers),
• Avoiding killing the rider of the motorcycle considering that the probability of survival is greater for the passenger of the car,
• Killing an animal on the street in favour of a human being,
• Changing lanes to crash into another car to avoid killing a dog,

And here are a few dilemmas:

• Does the algorithm recognize the difference between a human being and an animal?
• Does the size of the human being or animal matter?
• Does it count how many passengers it has vs. people in the front?
• Does it "know" when babies/children are on board?
• Does it take into the account the age (e.g. killing the older first)?

How would an algorithm decide what should it do from the technical perspective? Is it being aware of above (counting the probability of kills), or not (killing people just to avoid its own destruction)?

Related articles:

• Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill
• How to Help Self-Driving Cars Make Ethical Decisions