When an autonomous vehicle
crashes or has an accident of some sort – who is responsible, and to what
degree? Consider the following story:
Alice buys an autonomous vehicle from Bob, who sells them. The autonomous vehicle has different settings, some more aggressive (where the autonomous vehicle drives faster and brakes harder), and some less. Alice sets the autonomous vehicle to its most aggressive setting. One night on a dark and wet road, Alice hits a pedestrian, Carlos, who was jaywalking. Carlos is badly hurt.
Alice buys an autonomous vehicle from Bob, who sells them. The autonomous vehicle has different settings, some more aggressive (where the autonomous vehicle drives faster and brakes harder), and some less. Alice sets the autonomous vehicle to its most aggressive setting. One night on a dark and wet road, Alice hits a pedestrian, Carlos, who was jaywalking. Carlos is badly hurt.
First, some assumptions that I have made regarding this
story: The vehicle still has a steering wheel in the car, but has the option of
full autonomous mode. I also assume that the government have made some sort of
standardized test that all autonomous systems must follow. This includes
minimum braking distance, minimum distance to other cars at varying speed and
at minimum distance at which humans must be recognized by the system (given
that there is a clear line of sight) – let’s assume 50 meters in urban areas.
Given these circumstances, I would argue that the state and
the manufacturer are partially responsible for this injury. The government is
mainly responsible due to the fact that they have allowed this vehicle on the
road. The manufacturer might not be responsible per se, if they have been truthful
during testing (Remember VW diesel problems?). Furthermore, the driver of an
autonomous vehicle should not really be held responsible in this situation, as
she has to assume that the vehicle is fully compliant with all the safety
regulations.
This means that either the problem was in the testing of the
vehicles itself, either from poorly conducted safety assurance from the
government or that the manufacturer cheated the test. Of course, it could also
be a freak accident, but that would probably be due to either some malfunction
or bug in the system itself, leading to the manufacturer having to take
responsibility due to poor quality or poor design of the system itself.
The question at hand is rather complex and I have not given
a direct answer. That is because there are so many variables that have to be
accounted for, so a full investigation has to be put in place so that the root
cause can be found. However, I think that when the vehicles become fully
autonomous, the driver cannot be held responsible – they just take for granted
that the system will work no matter what and therefore it’s not their
responsibility if the vehicle crashes. (In addition, being involved in such a
crash would be “punishment” enough for any driver).
It is indeed a complex situation. Yes, being involved in a crash would be a punishment in itself. Thank you for your thoughts. - The CDIO Academy Team
ReplyDelete