Citation

Bonnefon JF, Shariff A, Rahwan I. Science 2016; 352(6293): 1573-1576.

Affiliation

The Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. irahwan@mit.edu.

Comment In:

Science 2016;352(6293):1514-5.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science)

DOI

10.1126/science.aaf2654

PMID

27339987

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) should reduce traffic accidents, but they will sometimes have to choose between two evils, such as running over pedestrians or sacrificing themselves and their passenger to save the pedestrians. Defining the algorithms that will help AVs make these moral decisions is a formidable challenge. We found that participants in six Amazon Mechanical Turk studies approved of utilitarian AVs (that is, AVs that sacrifice their passengers for the greater good) and would like others to buy them, but they would themselves prefer to ride in AVs that protect their passengers at all costs. The study participants disapprove of enforcing utilitarian regulations for AVs and would be less willing to buy such an AV. Accordingly, regulating for utilitarian algorithms may paradoxically increase casualties by postponing the adoption of a safer technology.

Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Language: en