scholarly journals The Trolley Problem Version of Autonomous Vehicles

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yair Wiseman ◽  
Ilan Grinberg

Introduction:The Trolley problem is a very well-known ethics dilemma about actively killing one or sometimes even more persons in order to save a number of persons. The problem can occur in autonomous vehicles when the vehicle realizes that there is no way to prevent a collision, the computer of the vehicle should analyze which collision is considered to be the least harmful collision.Method and Result:In this paper, we suggest a method to evaluate the likely harmfulness of each sort of collision using Spatial Data Structures and Bounding Volumes and accordingly to decide which course of actions would be the less harmful and therefore should be chosen by the autonomous vehicle.Conclusion:The aim of this paper is to emphasize that the “Trolley Problem” occurs when the human driver is replaced by a robot and if a moral answer is given by an authoritative and legitimate board of experts, it can be coded in autonomous vehicle software.

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-88
Author(s):  
A. S. J. Cervera ◽  
F. J. Alonso ◽  
F. S. García ◽  
A. D. Alvarez

Roundabouts provide safe and fast circulation as well as many environmental advantages, but drivers adopting unsafe behaviours while circulating through them may cause safety issues, provoking accidents. In this paper we propose a way of training an autonomous vehicle in order to behave in a human and safe way when entering a roundabout. By placing a number of cameras in our vehicle and processing their video feeds through a series of algorithms, including Machine Learning, we can build a representation of the state of the surrounding environment. Then, we use another set of Deep Learning algorithms to analyze the data and determine the safest way of circulating through a roundabout given the current state of the environment, including nearby vehicles with their estimated positions, speeds and accelerations. By watching multiple attempts of a human entering a roundabout with both safe and unsafe behaviours, our second set of algorithms can learn to mimic the human’s good attempts and act in the same way as him, which is key to a safe implementation of autonomous vehicles. This work details the series of steps that we took, from building the representation of our environment to acting according to it in order to attain safe entry into single lane roundabouts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Khoury ◽  
Kamar Amine ◽  
Rima Abi Saad

This paper investigates the potential changes in the geometric design elements in response to a fully autonomous vehicle fleet. When autonomous vehicles completely replace conventional vehicles, the human driver will no longer be a concern. Currently, and for safety reasons, the human driver plays an inherent role in designing highway elements, which depend on the driver’s perception-reaction time, driver’s eye height, and other driver related parameters. This study focuses on the geometric design elements that will directly be affected by the replacement of the human driver with fully autonomous vehicles. Stopping sight distance, decision sight distance, and length of sag and crest vertical curves are geometric design elements directly affected by the projected change. Revised values for these design elements are presented and their effects are quantified using a real-life scenario. An existing roadway designed using current AASHTO standards has been redesigned with the revised values. Compared with the existing design, the proposed design shows significant economic and environmental improvements, given the elimination of the human driver.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aarushi Kapoor ◽  
Khushi Sharma

The Automotive Industry has registered an impeccable growth rate since the adoption of autonomous vehicles by vehicle manufacturers in their high-end models. These fully autonomous vehicles are poised to replace the traditional human driver. Hence, the whole set of laws defining liability in the event of an accident involving a vehicle have to be reformed. An autonomous vehicle being sued in lieu of a human driver, would be impractical. With the accidents involving autonomous vehicles increasing, newly minted laws like that of Michigan Harbor Lacunas are forming to address the question of liability and as a consequence of which the innocent (the manufacturer in so many cases) is held absolutely liable, despite his pleading defense. Such a harsh stance is unhealthy for the development of technology. Apart from the conundrum surrounding liability there are other dimensions which are equally unaddressed when it comes to automation. These autonomous vehicles rely on data, thereby adding to the vulnerability of protection of an individual’s privacy. These brimming chaos are likely to hamper the aggrandizement of technology and subsequent protection of commercial interests.This Article is an attempt to comprehensively analyze the uncertainty surrounding the questions of liability and privacy protection for autonomous vehicles. It takes into account the technology friendly interpretation of law, which will balance the diametrically opposite variables. It draws the laws from the existing set of principles available. Further, it proposes a new framework eliminate obscurity and concludes on a positive note with recommendations which are likely to accentuate the effectiveness of the current laws and lay down a steppingstone for the future development of laws.


Author(s):  
Wendel B. Silva ◽  
Maria Andréia F. Rodrigues

This work presents a comparative study of various combinations of visibility algorithms (view-frustum culling, backface culling, and a simple yet fast algorithm called conservative backface culling) and different settings of standard spatial data structures (non-uniform Grids, BSP-Trees, Octrees, and Portal-Octrees) for enabling efficient graphics rendering of both indoor and urban 3D environments, especially suited for low-end handheld devices. Performance tests and analyses were conducted using two different mobile platforms and environments in the order of thousands of triangles. The authors demonstrate that navigation at interactive frame rates can be obtained using geometry rather than image-based rendering or point-based rendering on the cell phone Nokia n82.


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