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Comment by at-fates-hands | Hacker News Reader

This is going to be a major morality issue with self driving cars.

What if a deer crosses the road? Will the car hit the deer to save the life of the driver? Avoid the deer to avoid an accident? Or save the deer and run into the ditch, possibly harming the driver?

Unfortunately, this technology is not capable of making those decisions and if ultimately the driver is responsible, then maybe we should just keep it that way then.

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"Or save the deer and run into the ditch, possibly harming the driver?"

This is not even a slight morality issue. The person is more important than the deer.

"Unfortunately, this technology is not capable of making those decisions"

Of course it is. Program the machine so that its primary concern is protection of human life. Which should be its secondary concern (protection of property or protection of deer) is a more interesting question. But running into the ditch to save the deer while threatening harm to the driver is simply not an option.

Replace 'deer' with 'child' and there's suddenly more of a quandary

Rapidly apply brakes. Seems like the safest possible way to avoid the deer without causing injury to driver + possibly others.

That causes the front end of the car to pitch forwards, which can actually increase the severity of a collision with large animals.

Doesn't it also cause the car to stop?

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