What Are Driverless Cars Ethical

Subject Matter:

This report will delve into the topic of driverless cars, and whether they can be an ethical, reliable and economic form transportation for us in the future.

Background Problem:

We will attempt to address surrounding issues of ethics and economic costs of these driverless vehicles.

Will driverless vehicles be able to handle ethical issues of the road as well as human beings when the situation occurs? Also, will the perceived benefit of driverless cars outweigh their economical costs once created?

Scope of Investigation:

The scope of this investigation delves into the economical and ethical perspective of driverless cars associated with businesses, the government and or software designers.

Analysis Method:

Five methods

It follows that an action is morally correct if it leads to the reduction of pain, and on the flip side, is morally incorrect if it leads to the increase of pain (L2,S9). This philosophy is further divided into two schools of thought. The first is act utilitarianism; which states that any action is morally correct if the outcome leads to the greatest good for the greatest amount. The second is rule utilitarianism; which also aims to achieve the greatest good for the greatest amount, however that action must fall within the confines of an pre-existing

Propose that a high speed driverless vehicle is transporting five passengers and has detected an unsafe car running a red light crossing the road ahead with little time to stop.

The car's greatest purpose is to reduce the amount of pain as much as possible (the five passengers); therefore should it follow the act utilitarianism and break the law by attempting to swerve dangerously into to the sidewalk and prevent injury to its passengers? Or should it follow the rule utilitarianism by not breaking the existing law and attempt to brake with the possibility of colliding with the car ahead? Both situations aim to reduce as much pain as possible but act one will break the law, and the other will not.

The root of this dilemma was a careless driver that decided to run a red light. The solution to this problem could be solved if all cars were driverless and manufactured safely, thus removing human error from the situation. This perceived benefit of avoiding car accidents would outweigh the cost of driverless cars.