Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T12:32:29.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A FRAMEWORK FOR ADDRESSING ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE ENGINEERING OF AUTOMATED VEHICLES (AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2020

J. Millar
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa, Canada
D. Paz
Affiliation:
Stanford University, United States of America
S. M. Thornton*
Affiliation:
Stanford University, United States of America
C. Parisi
Affiliation:
Apple Inc., United States of America
J. C. Gerdes
Affiliation:
Stanford University, United States of America

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Policymakers have attempted to preemptively address the concern of ethical issues with the regulation of automated vehicles. Unfortunately, both policymakers and designers of these technologies struggle to articulate ethical issues and their resolution. We propose a framework that engineers and designers of automated technologies can apply that allows them to identify and resolve ethical tensions within the design task. We demonstrate the practicability of the framework to the engineering design process through a human-subject study where engineers applied the framework in a workshop.

Type
Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

References

Friedman, B., Kahn, P.H. and Borning, A. (2008), “Value sensitive design and information systems”, In: Himma, K.E. and Tavani, H.T. (Eds.), The handbook of information and computer ethics, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. pp. 69101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, B. and Kahn, P.H. Jr. (2003), “Human Values, Ethics, and Design”, In: Jacko, J.A. and Sears, A. (Eds.), The human-computer interaction handbook, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 11771201.Google Scholar
Gerdes, J.C., Thornton, S.M. and Millar, J. (2019), “Designing Automated Vehicles Around Human Values”, In: Meyer, G. and Beiker, S. (Eds.), Road vehicle automation 6, AVS 2019, Lecture notes on mobility. Springer, Cham, pp. 3948.Google Scholar
Kenner, S. (2016), Apple's Comments on the Federal Automated Vehicle Policy. [online] November 22, 2016. Medium.com. Available at: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=NHTSA-2016-0090-1115 (Accessed: 13 Nov 2019).Google Scholar
Kyrouz, M. (2018), Public Comments on NHTSA's 2017 Automated Driving Systems: A Vision for Safety. [online] Medium.com. Available at: https://medium.com/smart-cars-a-podcast-about-autonomous-vehicles/public-comments-on-nhtsas-2017-automated-driving-systems-a-vision-for-safety-2-0-526ca67b1955 (Accessed: 30 Oct 2019).Google Scholar
Millar, J. (2016), “An Ethics Evaluation Tool for Automating Ethical Decision-Making in Robots and Self-Driving Cars”, Applied Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 30 No. 8, pp. 787809.10.1080/08839514.2016.1229919CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, A.J. et al. (2019), Foresight into AI Ethics (FAIE): A toolkit for creating an ethics roadmap for your AI project. [online] Open Roboethics Initiative. Available at: http://www.openroboethics.org/ai-toolkit (Accessed: 4 November 2019).Google Scholar
NHTSA (2016a), Federal Automated Vehicles Policy: Accelerating the Next Revolution in Road Safety. [online] U.S. Department of Transportation. Available at: https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/AV%20policy%20guidance%20PDF.pdf (Accessed: 30 Oct 2019).Google Scholar
NHTSA (2016b), What is NHTSA's Approach to Ethical Considerations. [online] NHTSA.gov. Available at: https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-manufacturers/automated-driving-systems#automated-driving-systems-faq (Accessed: 30 Oct 2019).Google Scholar
Vallor, S. (2018), An Ethical Toolkit for Engineering/Design Practice. [online] Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Available at: https://www.scu.edu/ethics-in-technology-practice/ethical-toolkit (Accessed: 2 November 2019).Google Scholar
Verhalen, J.K. (2016), The National Society of Professional Engineers’ Public Comment on Docket ID No. NHTSA-2016-0090-0001. [online] National Society of Professional Engineers. Available at: https://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/resources/pdfs/NSPE-Public-Comment-NHTSA-2016-0090-0001.pdf (Accessed: 30 Oct 2019).Google Scholar