If an autonomous car faces the “no-win” situation of saving either its passengers or pedestrians (but not both), what should it do? It’s an ethical question that has been asked pretty much since the idea of self-driving vehicles first appeared on the motoring landscape.
And now a Mercedes-Benz official has provided some sort of answer…
Yes, the German automaker says its upcoming Level 4 autonomous vehicles will prioritise the safety of its occupants over that of pedestrians and other road-users.
“If you know you can save at least one person, at least save that one. Save the one in the car,” Christoph von Hugo, manager of driver assistance systems, active safety and ratings, told motoring.com.au at the Paris Motor Show.
“If all you know for sure is that one thing, one death, can be prevented then that’s your first priority,” he explained.
“You could sacrifice the car, but then the people you’ve saved, you don’t know what happens to them after that in situations that are often very complex. So you save the ones you know you can save,” Von Hugo told the Australian publication.
He did, however, add that the ethical dilemma would likely not be encountered much at all in reality.
“We believe this ethical question won’t be as relevant as people believe today. It will be occur much less often. There are situations that today’s driver can’t handle, from a physical stand point. It [an autonomous vehicle] will be far better than the average driver.
“This moral question of who to save: 99% of our engineering work is to prevent these situations from happening at all. We are working so our cars don’t drive into situations where that could happen and drive away from potential situations where those decisions have to be made at all,” he told motoring.com.au.
