Page - (000086) - in Autonomes Fahren - Technische, rechtliche und gesellschaftliche Aspekte

Why Ethics Matters for Autonomous Cars74 a programmer would ever have to make. Yet, there is little discussion about this core issue to date. 4.2 Scenarios that implicate ethics In addition to the ones posited above, there are many actual and hypothetical scenarios that involve judgments about ethics. I will describe some here to show how ordinary assump- tions in ethics can be challenged. 4.2.1 The deer Though difficult to quantify due to inconsistent and under-reporting, experts estimate that more than a million car accidents per year in the US are caused by deer [6, 48]. Many, if not most, drivers have been startled by an unexpected animal on the road, a dangerous situation for both parties. Deconstructing a typical accident, or near-accident, involving an animal illustrates the complexity of the decisions facing the driver [30]. While all this happens within seconds – not enough time for careful deliberations by human drivers – an autonomous car could have the virtue of a (presumably) thoughtful decision-making script to very quickly react in an optimal way. If it is able to account for the many variables, then it ought to, for the most informed decision possible. First, suppose an object appears on the road directly in front of a car in autonomous mode. Is there time to reasonably hand control back to the human behind the wheel? (Prob- ably not.) If not, is there time to stop the car? Would the car need to brake hard, or would moderate braking be sufficient? The decision to brake depends, again, on road conditions and whether a tailgater (such as a big-rig truck) is behind you, including its speed to deter- mine the severity of a possible rear-end collision. Second, what is the object? Is it an animal, a person, or something else? If it is an animal, are some animals permissible to run over? It may be safer to continue ahead and strike a squirrel, for instance, than to violently swerve around it and risk losing control of the car. However, larger animals, such as deer and cows, are more likely to cause serious damage to the car and injuries to occupants than a spun-out car. Other animals, still, have special places in our hearts and should be avoided if possible, such as pet dogs and cats. Third, if the car should get out of the way – either in conjunction with braking or not – should it swerve to the left or to the right? In the US and other nations in which drivers must stay on the right side of the road, turning to the right may mean driving off the road, poten- tially into a ditch or a tree. Not only could harm to the car and occupants be likely, but it also matters how many occupants are in the car. The decision to drive into an embankment seems different when only one adult driver is in the car, than when several children are inside too. On the other hand, turning to the left may mean driving into an opposite lane, potentially into a head-on collision with incoming vehicles. If such a collision is unavoidable, then it