Self-Driving Cars

 From the beginning, our ancestors wondered when flying cars would exist. Guess what ancestors! We made planes? Does that work? Since that was not our ancestors' vision, we might as well make something cool. Automated cars! 

    With every new invention comes problems. There is a debate on whether if these Artificially intelligent cars should be on the road. Of course, it is revolutionary, but it needs work. Needs work in terms of programming what the vehicle does in situations in which a moral decision is needed. We all know that computers dont have feelings. Matter a fact, their dumb. So the scenario given is to either avoid crashing head-first into an obstacle, steering to the left and hit an SUV or steer to the right and hit a motorcyclist. 

    If I were to be the programmer I would choose to hit the car head first because there is always a chance of causing a bigger accident. An SUV is generally held by a family with children as their occupants. While motorcyclists, having gear or not, can cause accidents with other incoming traffic. This is truly a big dilemma. Now out of this context for a second, parents always want to get their children out of danger, right? That is how I think of this dilemma. Saving others while sacrificing yours. Now not a lot of people think this way but if it means saving other people, then head-on collision is the safest/unsafest way to go for a programmed AI car. 

    However, the car needs to be programmed so that it sees every type of possible outcome. This looks like sensors on the car. Detecting the type of cars beside it and even drivers if we want to get more advanced. Detecting cars would be like seeing what car it is, how old it is, does it have cargo, and what could happen if the worst were to come. With this foreseen technology then we can keep a safe distance between any car at any time. Although this would help us narrow down the dilemma AI has on morality, there will be problems to acknowledge with this proposed technology. 

For example: 

What should be the distance gap? 

Will this cause more traffic since cars are allowing safe distance gaps? 

What if the sensors are damaged?

How do we solve interface probelms?

    In conclusion, I would have the car programmed so that it crashes into the upcoming obstacles so that it does not cause any greater harm. This is such a complex topic that we would have to test out everyone's theory out to see what would be the best solution.