Re: The problem with academic exercises in ethics
As you pointed out, these are really pretty contrived situations. The solution to all of them is to have the vehicle go where there aren't people. No one on the sidewalk? OK. No one in the ditch? Great. No one in the on coming lane? I'll take that too. Brick wall? The owner of the wall wouldn't be too happy, but every one lives. Slip between any two hazards? That's fine too. It would be extremely hard to get a vehicle surrounded by people when moving at such a speed that it couldn't stop in time. And most of those would require active participation on the part of the pedestrians. A lot of these require the assumption that you're not going to suspend other rules before choosing which person to hit. A properly developed algorithm would certainly prioritize human life over lane markings or inanimate objects.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
