Self-driving cars should prioritise young lives, says new global study

OLDER FOLK MAY WISH TO KEEP THEIR HANDS ON THE WHEEL.

AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED by Nature: International Journal of Science details the results of The Moral Machine experiment, which confronted over two million participants with a variety of hypothetical moral dilemmas as faced by an autonomous vehicle, its passengers and nearby pedestrians.For instance, participants were presented with a graphic representation of a hypothetical scenario and asked which of the two choices would be preferable in the event of brake failure: the death of three elderly pedestrians illegally crossing the road, or the death of the young family in the car.

Through the recording of almost 40 million decisions via this experiment, the researchers found that the strongest preferences were to spare human lives rather than pets, save more lives versus fewer, and saving younger lives rather than the elderly (in that order). The implementation of such preferences, however, is going to be a little less straightforward when having to consider the ethics of judging the value of a human life based on attributes such as age, gender and social status.