Cars are now safer than ever, although car accidents still claim the lives of over 30,000 Americans and over one million people around the globe each year. Google has proposed a solution, which, in the United States, could prevent 90% of car accidents from occurring: self-driving cars. However, in that remaining 10%, these cars will need to make snap decisions that could potentially save some lives while taking others.
The situation is this: you’re in your self-driving car and someone manually driving their car has lost control and is coming at you head on. Does the car swerve out of the way, avoiding one car but hitting another? Or does the car continue on it’s path and hit the driver head on?
On Wednesday, the Stevens Philosophy Club hosted a debate between esteemed professors Lee Vinsel and Garry Dobbins to discuss this topic. The debate took place in EAS 222, complete with pizza and refreshments.
Professor Vinsel is a proponent of these self-driving cars, although he is concerned with the morality of their programming. While he recognizes that the car is making the decision, a human programmed that car to make a certain decision. Vinsel believes that with tomorrow’s technology, cars will have sensors in each seat that can determine how many passengers are in the vehicle, as well as have the ability to communicate with other vehicles. With this technology, there may arise a situation in which the car has to decide to crash into another car, killing two people, rather than a bus of children, killing 12. While any loss of life is unfortunate, this will ultimately save lives, and Vinsel is all for that.
While professor Dobbins acknowledged that saving lives is a positive thing, he questioned ethics in general and brought the conversation to the dark present of the United States. The present filled with poverty, underprivileged children, a rape epidemic, and a corrupt government at the center of it all. Dobbins suggested that this issue with self-driving cars isn’t ethics, it’s moral utilitarianism. However, he questioned why students were even gathered to discuss Google’s self-driving car when the world is dying, to which Vinsel took offense, as that’s not what the debate was supposed to be about.
After the two professors made their stances known, a group discussion was opened up, allowing participants to share their opinion and raise further debate. The discussion largely turned into a conversation about ethics in general, accountability in the instance of self-driving cars, exploitation of morals, and Professor Dobbins constantly having to explain himself because people didn’t understand his stance. There was laughter, frustration, learning, and pizza.
The Stevens Philosophy Club is also a co-sponsor of the Veritas Forum, a debate between Professor John Horgan and Dr. John Lennox of Oxford University on whether or not faith and reason can coexist. The event will take place on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 8:30 p.m. in Bissinger.
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