You may have seen these headlines:
- “Self-Driving Uber Car Kills Pedestrian in Arizona, Where Robots Roam” -New York Times
- “After Uber’s fatal accident, is it the end for driverless cars? -The Telegraph
- “Woman struck and killed by self-driving Uber vehicle” -Roanoke Times
Hide your kids, hide your wife!! The robots are coming to kill us all!
Buried under these click-bait headlines (not necessarily from these news sources) were 3 key facts:
- There was a human driver behind the wheel of the autonomous vehicle who was responsible for making sure the vehicle operated safely.
- It was dark.
- The victim was not in a crosswalk.
Sure enough, police are now saying in their initial investigation that a human driver probably couldn’t have stopped in time and this looks like human error on the pedestrian’s part. A tragic accident, one of many around the country every day, sadly, but nothing more.
The devil is in the details and the person with the most power is the one who can make the most distinctions in any given situation. Never make a snap judgement from a headline.
What do you think? There's a lot of ethics to discuss regarding autonomous vehicles, and I'd love to read your comments below.
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