<strike></strike>Autonomous Cars
The development of the autonomous car marks a significant stride in the automobile manufacturing industry. Amid this development, engineers continue to experience critical challenges in the development of car software. The biggest concern relates to the issue of ethical obligations of the situations on the road. The engineers must ensure that autonomous cars act ethically while on the road. These cars are programmed to choose the outcome with the most significant potential of offering safety to the passengers. The engineers have the task of ensuring the driverless vehicle makes an ethical decision in the unavoidable crash (Mervis, 2017). The engineer's findings should encompass the need to inflict minimal harm to all the parties involved in the accident.
Indeed, the autonomous vehicle should choose the option of swerving to a stationary object or drive straight towards a collision.
Indeed, the autonomous vehicle should choose the option of swerving to a stationary object or drive straight towards a collision.
Ethical consideration presents engineer A with critical choices. In extreme scenarios like an unavoidable crash, can be instructed to choose the path with the least damage. An example relates to an impending collision between a saloon car and a big truck. The engineer has the ethical obligation of ensuring the safety of the passengers on board. Indeed, a collision with the lorry has more potential severe damage than a collision with a saloon car.
Similarly, an unavoidable crash with the truck poses more potential harm than a saloon car. Therefore, Engineer A should program the autonomous vehicle to collide with the saloon car because it has the potential of causing a minimal threat to the passengers (Mervis, 2017). Alternatively, Engineer A can instruct the driverless to avoid colliding with the two vehicles in an instant. Double collision will further increase the cost of damages by a more significant margin. Also, the engineer has the option of instructing the vehicle to swerve to stationary objects to avert severe injuries to the passengers.
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Figure 1 Autonomous knocks a stationary object to save passengers, (J. Mervis 2017)
Secondly, the engineer has the obligation of ensuring the safety of the passengers. Therefore, the potential ethical responsibility would involve undertaking dangerous paths that include protecting the passengers. This path consists of adopting the course that offers more safety for the autonomous car and its occupants. This path considers maximum damage to the other road users (Lin, 2018). Ethically, the engineer programs the vehicle to care for the passengers at all costs.