Publications
Publications
- 2021
- 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
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.
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 (in press).
About The Author
