I agree that my scenario is contrived. It was meant to be illustrative of the actual ethical dilemmas were going to face when this happens.
Does my car have ethics? If I'm terminal can I tell my car that in a me or someone else situation choose them? What other factors come into play if Im not saying I'm willing? Is it age? Does my car have some sense of WHO is involved and makes a decision based on some arbitrary stat? does it flip a coin?
In theory 32k people live with self driving cars. In theory 32k people live if we all stop driving. If you are give you the choice of writing two programs, one that prevents cars from working at all or one that is going to kill four kids what program are you going to write? There are a lot of things about this that aren't cut and dry at all. Like I said its going to be interesting if we ever get them.