What’s the Matter with Vehicle Automation Ethics?
…or: What Really Matters in Vehicle Automation Ethics
Alexander Mirnig 1, 2
1
  University of Salzburg, Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Interfaces, Human-Computer
Interaction Division, Salzburg, Austria
2
    AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Center for Technology Experience, Vienna, Austria


                 Abstract
                 One of the big obstacles impeding progress towards full vehicular automation lies with
                 machine decision making and the potential ethical consequences thereof – in particular in
                 relation to dilemma situations. The discussions surrounding the “Trolley Problem” paint a
                 picture from which a satisfactory way out is difficult to see: No matter which outcome is
                 chosen in such a dilemma, human individuals come to harm, thereby rendering the decision
                 leading to the outcome ethically problematic and undesirable. As a consequence, any
                 decision algorithm that would propose to execute such an action would be equally
                 unacceptable, which leads us to an impasse on how to design vehicles with ethically sound
                 decision making … or so it might seem. In this talk, we will untangle the complex problem
                 space of moral dilemmas and vehicle automation together. We first take a thorough look at
                 dilemmas and their purpose in Philosophy, so that we can then explore various dilemma
                 variations and finally discover why the problem posed by dilemmas is actually not part of the
                 design space that is appropriate to deal with them as far as the decision-making process is
                 concerned. We will then move the dial towards the future and put the lens on the true scope
                 of ethically relevant aspects in relation to vehicle automation, in order to specify what we
                 (should) mean whenever we talk about “ethical automated vehicles”.




                   1




Human-Computer Interaction Slovenia 2022, November 29, 2022, Ljubljana, Slovenia
EMAIL: alexander.mirnig@plus.ac.at

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