Autonomous cars might be programmed to kill us in the future according to some scientists and futurists.
Autonomous cars promise a lot of things. Some of them include fewer traffic snarls, no more manual driving, and the option of killing you. Yes. That’s right. Your shiny new autonomous car may also get programmed to kill you. Of course, there is a very good reason for such programming.
Imagine that you are sitting in your brand-new autonomous car. The computer is driving you comfortably. Suddenly, pedestrians appear out of nowhere. Now, what will the computer do?
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These situations are only going to become more common with the rise of autonomous cars which is not far off, by the way. Therefore, computers behind these cars need to be taught how to interact with pedestrians and such situations. What’s more is that one of the reasons for the advent and popularity of such vehicles is that they are supposed to reduce accidents and save lives. If not, we might all find ourselves in need of car accident attorneys!
Unfortunately, there can be situations where the car has to take either of two choices both of which result in deaths. As uncomfortable as the thought is, we need to think about it now. After all, it’s inevitable that such a situation can arise. In such cases, the computers will have to be taught how to judge between the two courses of actions and take the one that results in the least bloodshed. That may include sacrificing the life of the passenger or owner to protect the pedestrians. Damn! Getting killed by your own car? That’s gotta be rough.
This also raises all sorts of other ethical and moral questions. For example, who is at fault when a robot ends up killing somebody? Jerry Kaplan believes that robots need to be taught ethics and morality. While necessary, the fact remains, who the heck will do it? Nobody really knows how to even do it. What’s for sure is that we have been presented with some philosophical dilemmas like: will anyone buy a car programmed to kill them? That idea is just damned
