Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

A Trolley Problem for our times

"Should a Self-Driving Car Kill its Passengers in a 'Greater Good' Scenario?", this article asks:

Picture the scene: You’re in a self-driving car and, after turning a corner, find that you are on course for an unavoidable collision with a group of 10 people in the road with walls on either side. Should the car swerve to the side into the wall, likely seriously injuring or killing you, its sole occupant, and saving the group? Or should it make every attempt to stop, knowing full well it will hit the group of people while keeping you safe?

This is a moral and ethical dilemma that a team of researchers have discussed in a new paper published in Arxiv, led by Jean-Francois Bonnefon from the Toulouse School of Economics. They note that some accidents like this are inevitable with the rise in self-driving cars – and what the cars are programmed to do in these situations could play a huge role in public adoption of the technology. . . .

Okay, all you experts on intention out there . . .  What's the answer?

https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2015/10/a-trolley-problem-for-our-times.html

Garnett, Rick | Permalink