Cars Cannot Be Ethical

~1min read

How many times have you had to break to avoid someone stepping out into the road? Maybe a few times? Now out of those, how many did you have to swerve as well, in order to avoid hitting them? And out of those ones, how many times did you have to make contact with some physical object to prevent the death(s) of the first party? And out of those, how many times did you kill yourself?

These questions tell us more about humans’ inability to assign responsibility, than morality. If a government allows a driver-less car on the road, it’s certifying its safety; these questions just tell show us how bad software certification truly is.

— Mark Tuddenham, Southampton, January 2018