Kantian Ethics and Autonomous Vehicle Programming

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Opposing ethical principles would program the vehicle in different ways. Immanuel Kant piloted the nonconsequentialist ethical view of morals. If Kant programmed the car, he would not change the car’s intended path to save multiple people because doing so would use other humans as means to an end. Kantian Ethics are based off of categorical imperatives. Put simply, “an action is right only if the agent would be willing to be so treated if the position of the parties were reversed” (Eby 1). Swerving to hit another person would be deciding that person’s fate, without consent, in order to save the larger group. This is not ethically justified by Kantian standards. Therefore, if the car was intended to veer towards the large group, it should continue on that trajectory. Additionally, there is still the possibility of the ten people moving out of the way in time or the breaks of the car could react fast enough to prevent an accident. Why should the car take the life of a bystander given those possibilities? A proponent of Kantian Ethics would advise the car to continue on its path but would enable the breaks.
Yet Kantian Ethics is that this philosophy cannot …show more content…

Notably, Ayn Rand held this view. “This holds that people should do or ought to do what is in their (long term) self-interest” (Eby 3). Some advocates of normative ethical egoism find it unethical to require a sacrifice of self-interest through the belief that this hinders freedom and initiative. Applying this theory to the autonomous vehicle scenario, the car would save the driver and passengers at all cost. In this case, the driver would regard their own life so highly that they disregard the injury their actions would cause others. A self-driving car acting out of the same self-interest theory would be programmed to hit the group of pedestrians, so long as it guarantees the survival of the vehicle and its

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