The Messy Ethics of Self Driving Cars

The development of self-driving cars presents one of the greatest ethical conundrums in history. Because of these inventions, which will save thousands of lives every year, we will have to decide how to kill people.

Twitter: @WendoverPro

Outro Music:
Airport Lounge by Kevin MacLeod

Visuals:
Additional footage provided by VideoBlocks LLC
Images licenced under Creative Commons 3.0
Licenses available upon request

[Thumbsupurbum]

Who pays for car insurance with a self driving car? If the driver has no direct control over the car's actions, then is the driver really responsible for a collision? Would the manufacturer be responsible?

[eirikmurito]

solution: every time the car has an ethical dilemma it flips a coin

[FutureLaugh]

one of the simplest ways to solve the problem with ethics, is to remove them all together. Allow humans to deal with their humanity, the car should be programmed to have its best selfish interest in mind, and that is to preserve the life of the vehicle and its occupants. If all autonomous cars are programmed to veer right when oncoming to another car, then it is in their best self interest they veer right. If there is a baby carriage in the road, the car should not make a judgement call to veer into a sidewalk full of people, it should hit the breaks and attempt to avoid an impact, and if that means it cannot- it cannot, and the tragedy lays within the absentee mother and not the car.

[NoellyB]

Modeling after human behavior? Doesn't this just defeat the advantage of the lessening of accidents due to self-driving cars?

[shermko]

What if it honked to give a fair warning something bad was about to happen?

[JB]

Wow it's amazing how much this channel has grown since this congrats on all the amazing work 👏

[Bendabasil]

Graphics: 2/10
Content: 10/10
Keep up the great work! And happy new year!

[BobBob-hnqk]

I would not divert the train to hit one person. That one person was crossing safely probably knowing that the train wasn't going to hit him. The other 5 were being stupid and crossing in front of the train. The one person should not die because of the dumb actions of others

[AsuraVeri]

One of the best channels I've come across on YouTube. Thank you for these amazing videos.

[jedimastersterling]

3:40. How on earth is the car supposed to know that the pedestrian is a felon. We're talking about the ethics of a circuit board here not those of an omniscient third person.

[Mat.Carvalho]

I laughed so hard with the man so fat he would be able to stop a train.

[Tacsponge]

The real solution to all these problems is to program the car to avoid these scenarios. Keep a safe following distance, drive slowly on narrow Roads. The power of just hitting the breaks is always ignored.

[andretsang]

The car must care for the passengers safety first. I'm not going to buy a car that jeopardizes my safety for ANY circumstance. I don't care if you have to drive through a nun, YOULL DRIVE THROUGH THAT NUN

[Anonyhouse]

**DEATH ALGORITHM** sounds like a metal band.

[legitquit]

better yet, why are there people standing on the tracks

[lfakerson]

Funny I used this train scenario on my high school essay. It probably was the only reason I passed my essay.

[idkwhyievenbother]

I don't want an autonomous car. I want to be able to decide what to do in those situations

[FennecTECH]

if every car is autonimous and interconnected there wont be issues like this

[Kenji]

I don't get it, the whole point of an autonomous car is to prevent drivers from intentionally hitting someone, not to be the omnipotent life-saving game-changing vehicle. For most of the situation stated, if they can veer off to the side safely, do it, otherwise just hammer the brakes to give more time to the incoming vehicle/human to react and pray they get off the friggin road.

For situation like the traffic light situation, what they need isn't a better autonomous car, it's a friggin better air bag. An autonomous car that veer off to the side road whenever there's an incoming vehicle from behind is just a terrible idea. Useful in that situation, perhaps, but absolutely disastrous in day-to-day commute.

[julie]

Wouldn't some of this be avoided though if all cars were self driving? i.e the truck situation