Would a Google car sacrifice you for the sake of the many?
medium.com
medium.com
When I get into a car, I'm not really worried about my chance of getting into an accident on this one trip. I'm interested in my overall chances of getting in a serious accident over the long term. I would happily drive in a car that will sacrifice me for the greater good, knowing that every other car out there is programmed the same way. I will get in a car each day knowing that my overall chances of surviving the trip are pretty good.
That said, I do pay attention to short-term factors such as impending severe weather and unusual road conditions.
The real question is, how do we help people who are less statistically minded accept cars that reason like this? The current US political climate does not seem like one that will accept this level of rationality easily.
How do you program "greater good" in a split-second decision making scenario? How do you decide who wins and who loses, and by what criteria?
I'll answer those rhetorical questions for you: you don't.
The guy that darts into traffic, which results in a network of cars deciding to kill me in order to minimize "overall" damage to humanity? You've killed a person with a family, with people who rely on me to provide for them. The guy that darts into traffic is running from the police after having committed a serious crime. How do you programmatically determine that his life is more worth than mine or the others who may be impacted by avoiding just running over him in the first place?
You don't. Not with a set of programmed rules in a decision making system that doesn't have the ability to take in external variables in the process of making that decision.
That guy jumping into the road, with the cop chasing him that I can see on the sidewalk? I'm running over him instead of killing myself in the process. If I see that "guy in the road" is the entire soprano section of the Angelic Children's Choir, then maybe I aim for the light pole and pick a deity to pray to.
I do not trust ANY piece of software to make that decision for me, or for anyone, for any reason, and in any situation.
[1] I have intentionally ditched my car in a way that I thought would result in my own demise in order to minimize damage to others. It was my choice to do so.
[2] I understand by getting into a vehicle that I don't control (plane, train, bus, taxicab, etc) that I am giving that decision-making process over to someone else. But that someone else is also human, with the same ability to process external input as I would, and I entrust them to not sacrifice both of us foolishly.