scholarly journals Algorithmic Decision-Making in AVs: Understanding Ethical and Technical Concerns for Smart Cities

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 5791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazel Si Min Lim ◽  
Araz Taeihagh

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are increasingly embraced around the world to advance smart mobility and more broadly, smart, and sustainable cities. Algorithms form the basis of decision-making in AVs, allowing them to perform driving tasks autonomously, efficiently, and more safely than human drivers and offering various economic, social, and environmental benefits. However, algorithmic decision-making in AVs can also introduce new issues that create new safety risks and perpetuate discrimination. We identify bias, ethics, and perverse incentives as key ethical issues in the AV algorithms’ decision-making that can create new safety risks and discriminatory outcomes. Technical issues in the AVs’ perception, decision-making and control algorithms, limitations of existing AV testing and verification methods, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities can also undermine the performance of the AV system. This article investigates the ethical and technical concerns surrounding algorithmic decision-making in AVs by exploring how driving decisions can perpetuate discrimination and create new safety risks for the public. We discuss steps taken to address these issues, highlight the existing research gaps and the need to mitigate these issues through the design of AV’s algorithms and of policies and regulations to fully realise AVs’ benefits for smart and sustainable cities.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2093 (1) ◽  
pp. 012032
Author(s):  
Peide Wang

Abstract With the improvement of vehicles automation, autonomous vehicles become one of the research hotspots. Key technologies of autonomous vehicles mainly include perception, decision-making, and control. Among them, the environmental perception system, which can convert the physical world’s information collection into digital signals, is the basis of the hardware architecture of autonomous vehicles. At present, there are two major schools in the field of environmental perception: camera which is dominated by computer vision and LiDAR. This paper analyzes and compares the two majors schools in the field of environmental perception and concludes that multi-sensor fusion is the solution for future autonomous driving.


2020 ◽  
pp. 089443932090650
Author(s):  
Hubert Etienne

This article discusses the dangers of the Moral Machine (MM) experiment, alerting against both its uses for normative ends and the whole approach it is built upon to address ethical issues. It explores additional methodological limits of the experiment on top of those already identified by its authors; exhibits the dangers of computational moral systems for modern democracies, such as the “voting-based system” recently developed out of the MM’s data; and provides reasons why ethical decision-making fundamentally excludes computational social choice methods.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Kieran Mark Tranter

<p><em>This article examines the challenges of autonomous motor vehicles for Queensland road and criminal laws</em>. <em>Autonomous vehicles refer to motor vehicles where driver decision making has been augmented or replaced by intelligent systems. Proponents of autonomous vehicles argue that they will virtually eliminate road accidents, boost productivity and provide significant environmental benefits. The key issue is that autonomous vehicles challenge the notion of human responsibility which lies at the core of Queensland’s road and criminal laws. The road rules are predicated on a driver in control of the vehicle, the intoxication regime is concerned with the person in charge of the vehicle and the dangerous driving offences require a person who operates a vehicle. Notwithstanding this challenge, it can be seen that much of Queensland’s law is adaptable to autonomous vehicles. However, there are some identifiable anomalies that require reform.</em></p>


Crisis ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 238-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul W. C. Wong ◽  
Wincy S. C. Chan ◽  
Philip S. L. Beh ◽  
Fiona W. S. Yau ◽  
Paul S. F. Yip ◽  
...  

Background: Ethical issues have been raised about using the psychological autopsy approach in the study of suicide. The impact on informants of control cases who participated in case-control psychological autopsy studies has not been investigated. Aims: (1) To investigate whether informants of suicide cases recruited by two approaches (coroners’ court and public mortuaries) respond differently to the initial contact by the research team. (2) To explore the reactions, reasons for participation, and comments of both the informants of suicide and control cases to psychological autopsy interviews. (3) To investigate the impact of the interviews on informants of suicide cases about a month after the interviews. Methods: A self-report questionnaire was used for the informants of both suicide and control cases. Telephone follow-up interviews were conducted with the informants of suicide cases. Results: The majority of the informants of suicide cases, regardless of the initial route of contact, as well as the control cases were positive about being approached to take part in the study. A minority of informants of suicide and control cases found the experience of talking about their family member to be more upsetting than expected. The telephone follow-up interviews showed that none of the informants of suicide cases reported being distressed by the psychological autopsy interviews. Limitations: The acceptance rate for our original psychological autopsy study was modest. Conclusions: The findings of this study are useful for future participants and researchers in measuring the potential benefits and risks of participating in similar sensitive research. Psychological autopsy interviews may be utilized as an active engagement approach to reach out to the people bereaved by suicide, especially in places where the postvention work is underdeveloped.


2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (4, Suppl) ◽  
pp. S106-S110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin D. McCaul ◽  
Ellen Peters ◽  
Wendy Nelson ◽  
Michael Stefanek

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-192
Author(s):  
Sonja Rinofner-Kreidl

Autonomy is associated with intellectual self-preservation and self-determination. Shame, on the contrary, bears a loss of approval, self-esteem and control. Being afflicted with shame, we suffer from social dependencies that by no means have been freely chosen. Moreover, undergoing various experiences of shame, our power of reflection turns out to be severly limited owing to emotional embarrassment. In both ways, shame seems to be bound to heteronomy. This situation strongly calls for conceptual clarification. For this purpose, we introduce a threestage model of self-determination which comprises i) autonomy as capability of decision-making relating to given sets of choices, ii) self-commitment in terms of setting and harmonizing goals, and iii) self-realization in compliance with some range of persistently approved goals. Accordingly, the presuppositions and distinctive marks of shame-experiences are made explicit. Within this framework, we explore the intricate relation between autonomy and shame by focusing on two questions: on what conditions could conventional behavior be considered as self-determined? How should one characterize the varying roles of actors that are involved in typical cases of shame-experiences? In this connection, we advance the thesis that the social dynamics of shame turns into ambiguous positions relating to motivation, intentional content,and actors’ roles.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weichao Wang ◽  
Quang A Nguyen ◽  
Paul Wai Hing Chung ◽  
Qinggang Meng

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document