Self-driving cars to learn from human drivers to help spot risks

Suppose a driverless car is headed towards five pedestrians - it can stay on course and kill them or swerve into a concrete wall, killing its passenger. This ethical dilemma is a difficult one - and it appears that people cannot decide which outcome is better. New research shows that people generally approve of cars programmed to sacrifice their passengers to save others, but these same people would not want to be in the car themselves. Autonomous vehicles (AVs), have the potential to benefit the world by eliminating up to 90 per cent of traffic accidents. However, not all crashes will be avoided, and some crash scenarios will require AVs to make difficult ethical decisions.