Codifying the Ethics of Autonomous Cars - DZone AI

The rise of automated vehicles has provoked a range of ethical and moral discussions, largely revolving around constructs such as the trolley dilemma, which nicely encapsulates the kind of moral decision-making an autonomous vehicle might be forced to make. Historically, it's been considered something that's beyond most autonomous systems. A recent study from The Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück suggests that the kind of moral thinking humans undertake can, in fact, be accurately modeled for autonomous systems to use. The system uses immersive virtual reality to study human behavior in a wide range of simulated road traffic scenarios. For instance, participants were asked to drive in a typical suburban setting in foggy weather.