[ExI] Self-driving cars to make moral and ethical decisions like humans

[BillK]

On 18 July 2017 at 02:24, Dan TheBookMan  wrote:
> On a tangent from this topic, I was wonder if with self-driving cars it
> wouldn't make more sense to move away from ownership to something like a
> subscription model. I only need a car when I want to go somewhere... since
> it's self-driving, once it gets me there, it can run other errands --
> presumably moving other people around -- until I need to go somewhere else.
> A subscription for self-driving cars might mean I subscribe to the service,
> use it when I need it and might not always be using the same car.
>
> Regarding the moral decisions thing, I think people will actually show
> themselves not to differ so much here when it comes to selecting actual AIs
> that decide one way or another.
>


Re AI car subscription model, the problem I have seen raised is 'who
is going to clean the car out?'. :)

Taxi and Uber drivers already face the problem of cleaning their cars
after disruptive passengers.
(Disruptive behaviour covers a very wide range, from litter, lost
possessions, damage, vomiting, using the taxi as a toilet, etc.). With
no human driver supervision, passenger behaviour could be expected to
get worse.

There will be video cameras, of course, and the customer credit card
could be charged for cleaning and repair costs. But there will still
have to be base station facilities set up to do the cleaning and
repairs and administration systems to recover costs. Uber drivers
usually just bear the cost themselves as it is too much trouble to
chase customers for payment.

It will be interesting to see how human behaviour changes when we no
longer 'own' anything, just pay for hire when required.

BillK