Driverless cars to decide whom to Spare

As we know very well that accidents are unpredictable, companies like Ford and General Motors are working on making cars which are accident proof. They are not working on their autonomous vehicles to compete companies like Lyft and Google’s Waymo. But instead they are working on the safety of public.

Driverless cars are closer to hit the road very soon than ever before. Testing on a wide scale has already begun. As we know the human nature is unpredictable, the companies are working hard to detect the reflexes to avoid accidents.

Who will the AI pick? Other people on the road or its Passengers! Should a car swerve and kill a small child, cat and an unemployed person in order to save three elderly people? What decision will it take if a person is unwell and pregnant?

We can very clearly make out that the decision clearly depends on the humans. Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a research work to find out the answer regarding this decision making confusion. A survey was conducted, where more than 40 million people across 233 countries participated. They were asked ethically challenging questions. The survey was named as “Moral Machine”.

According to the research study they found that preserving the lives of young over old, sparing the lives of humans over animals remained the same, however the percentage of people varied from places to places and countries to countries.

In some places in Asia they preferred elderly people lives more valuable than the younger ones. Similarly in the southern cluster it was just the opposite. They preferred younger people over the older ones.

When a situation was given that whom will they prefer an elderly person or a criminal, the life of a criminal was poorly valued. People were more likely to spare the life of a dog but not a cat.

Source – Gizmodo, India Today