General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: With Driverless Cars, a Safety Dilemma Arises: Would you buy a car that might decide to kill you? [View all]Kentonio
(4,377 posts)There will certainly come a point not too far away when the built in cameras will be able to detect vital signs and then questions like whether the life of the occupant or the life of pedestrians have the higher priority will become important. If it isn't factored in then you'll just get cases where the car tried to avoid others while keeping the occupant safe, which could result in a driverless car killing multiple pedestrians when it could have simply killed the occupant. Better to have the discussion today rather than end up with it litigated in court by the families of dead people.
I actually suspect the occupants life will be the one determined to highest priority. The famous moral test shows that people are deeply uncomfortable about any decision to deliberately kill an innocent person to save other innocent people, plus if the occupant isn't highest priority it could have a deeply damaging effect PR wise on the industry.