How far away are we from making the transition to self-driving cars? Car accident attorney Brian R. Denney at Searcy Denney explains that the future is here, and it is here now!
At cities throughout the country, there are fleets of self-driving cars being tested on the streets among other motorists. So far the technology has been promising, and we foresee an even bigger roll-out of these types of vehicles in just a few short years.
However, there are some issues with See more +
How far away are we from making the transition to self-driving cars? Car accident attorney Brian R. Denney at Searcy Denney explains that the future is here, and it is here now!
At cities throughout the country, there are fleets of self-driving cars being tested on the streets among other motorists. So far the technology has been promising, and we foresee an even bigger roll-out of these types of vehicles in just a few short years.
However, there are some issues with trusting a computer to make ethical decisions on the road. First and foremost is an ethical problem known as the Trolley Dilemma. The Trolley Dilemma describes a situation when a trolley operator notices five people strapped to the railroad tracks. If he doesn’t pull the lever to divert the trolley, they will all die. The trolley operator then notices one person strapped to the railroad tracks in the other direction that will surely die if he pulls the lever and diverts the trolley to save the family of five.
In addition to ethical dilemmas, autonomous cars will also have to make other tough decisions, such as how to handle a car stopping suddenly on the road. Will it choose to crash into the stopped car or swerve into a wall?
There are many dilemmas like this that will have to be programmed into a computer by human beings to tell the self-driving car how to handle these complex situations. As the technology develops, this is something that manufacturers will have to take into consideration. See less -
