[ExI] Do robot cars need ethics as well?

[BillK]

On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 6:26 PM, Adrian Tymes  wrote:
> The correct decision, and the one taught by any state-licensed
> driver's ed course in the US, is to maintain enough awareness and
> reaction distance so that this never happens in the first place.
>

Yes, it would be nice if we could plan to avoid having to make choices
between two evils. But unfortunate situations will still arise.

>
> What if it's a school bus rented by a prison authority, or a prison
> bus rented by a school authority (for a "Scare Them Straight"
> program - whatever one might think of those), or if those murderers
> had all been exonerated and were being bussed to an airport so
> they could go home?  Identification far beyond "a person" does not
> seem reliable enough to base any judgments on.
>

If the government is successful in getting everyone to carry a
tracking device (portable mobile phone at present, possibly implanted
chip in future years) then every human could have a 'value tag' being
broadcast for cars, etc. to read and quickly sum up the 'value' of the
bus contents.

However, I think I would be reluctant to allow a robot to decide to
sacrifice my life for the good of others. If the bad situation arises
I would prefer the robot to switch off and leave the human to deal
with it as best he/she could.


BillK