March 16, 2021
Article
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

From Driverless Dilemmas to More Practical Commonsense Tests for Automated Vehicles

By: Julian De Freitas, Andrea Censi, Bryant Walker Smith, Luigi Di Lillo, Sam E. Anthony and Emilio Frazzoli

Format:Print

Abstract

For the first time in history, automated vehicles (AVs) are being deployed in populated environments. This unprecedented transformation of our everyday lives demands a significant undertaking: endowing complex autonomous systems with ethically acceptable behavior. We outline how one prominent, ethically relevant component of AVs—driving behavior—is inextricably linked to stakeholders in the technical, regulatory, and social spheres of the field. Whereas humans are presumed (rightly or wrongly) to have the “common sense” to behave ethically in new driving situations beyond a standard driving test, AVs do not (and probably should not) enjoy this presumption. We examine, at a high level, how to test the common sense of an AV. We start by reviewing discussions of “driverless dilemmas,” adaptions of the traditional “trolley dilemmas” of philosophy that have sparked discussion on AV ethics but have limited use to the technical and legal spheres. Then, we explain how to substantially change the premises and features of these dilemmas (while preserving their behavioral diagnostic spirit) in order to lay the foundations for a more practical and relevant framework that tests driving common sense as an integral part of road rules testing.

Keywords

Automated Driving; Public Health; Artificial Intelligence; Transportation; Health; Ethics; Policy

Citation

De Freitas, Julian, Andrea Censi, Bryant Walker Smith, Luigi Di Lillo, Sam E. Anthony, and Emilio Frazzoli. "From Driverless Dilemmas to More Practical Commonsense Tests for Automated Vehicles." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 11 (March 16, 2021).