Emily Turnage
Gamification of Social Media
For today’s blog post, I’ve decided to delve into that subject that seems to excite most people as soon as they hear the words “Artificial Intelligence” – self-driving cars. They’re a marvel, to be sure, with many futuristic depictions of the world involving autonomous vehicles, along with many other ‘far-fetched’ conveniences of the future. By all accounts, they’re an exciting invention. But there’s an important moral conundrum that they bring to light with increasing regularity: that of the trolley problem, but intensified. Autonomous vehicles present the conundrum of saving oneself versus saving passerby, and this question is what concerns people most when posed with the idea of riding in one.
How do companies, as a whole, decide who to kill, if the situation arises? It’s a dark thought, but one that AV companies have grown very familiar with. Many are choosing, as Business Insider states, to simply dodge the question. Mercedes reportedly told Car and Driver that their vehicles would prioritize passenger lives, but later recanted that statement and gave one decidedly more neutral – that “neither programmers nor automated systems are entitled to weigh the value of human lives.” This was based on the idea that, in a crash, the vehicle should protect those it can most directly protect, the ones it can best save – the people inside. But this has the potential much more disquieting to the population in general, that people in cars take precedence over themselves. As someone interested in owning an automated vehicle once they become accessible to the general public – I hate driving, though I have to do so regularly to see family - the thought that my car favors my own life would certainly make getting one more appealing. And, while these questions are important ones, very rarely would they ever come into play, a relief considering many of the other aspects of driverless cars make being on the road – even around other human drivers – much safer. There are other moral quandaries that arise when the subject of automated vehicles is brought up – namely, the livelihoods of those who drive for a living. Taxi, Uber or Lyft drivers, delivery trucks, and many other industries rely on humans to drive cars – but that’s a field of work that could dry up fairly quickly once driverless cars become mainstream and accessible by people and companies alike. It’s the same concern that arises with robots taking over human jobs in other fields, and one that’s fast approaching as Google’s cars grow more and more advanced. Perhaps the employment of watchmen – people who don’t drive, but navigate the cars for passengers, and know the ins and outs of the car’s systems – would see an uptick. It’s not something there’s an easy answer to, unfortunately.
4 Comments
Darren Chan
2/26/2017 02:49:25 pm
Definitely a good point made. We are moving into a world where tech is now taking over and decreasing jobs for people. Very interesting to see what the world will be like in the next 5 to 10 years down the road. Also good point you bring up because when it comes to self driving cars, if there is an accident, who is to blame. One of the incident was with Tesla where a man was killed with the auto drive on. Definitely something that manufacturers who develop these self driving cars have to be aware of.
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Adrienne Horca
3/1/2017 05:55:44 pm
Emily,
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Adrienne Horca
3/1/2017 05:58:25 pm
Whoops! Pushed submit too early. Besides Utilitarianism, there is also a battle between egoism and altruism. Egoism, in that we want the car to save us and altruism in that we want the car to save others.
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5/16/2017 05:37:48 pm
I completely agree that programmers are not entitled to weighing out the lives of people. And in my opinion, technology will eventually take over many jobs from people and that is why people must work to better themselves and make themselves basically irreplaceable by a robotic or automation.
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AuthorI am a senior studying Communication Design, with an emphasis in Game Design. I like playing video games, writing, and yelling too loudly about things I care about. Archives
May 2017
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