Killing by Autonomous Vehicles and the Legal Doctrine of Necessity

Killing by Autonomous Vehicles and the Legal Doctrine of Necessity

Santoni De Sio, F. (TU Delft Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)

2017

How should autonomous vehicles (aka self-driving cars) be programmed to behave in the event of an unavoidable accident in which the only choice open is one between causing different damages or losses to different objects or persons? This paper addresses this ethical question starting from the normative principles elaborated in the law to regulate difficult choices in other emergency scenarios. In particular, the paper offers a rational reconstruction of some major principles and norms embedded in the Anglo-American jurisprudence and case law on the “doctrine of necessity”; and assesses which, if any, of these principles and norms can be utilized to find reasonable guidelines for solving the ethical issue of the regulation of the programming of autonomous vehicles in emergency situations. The paper covers the following topics: the distinction between “justification” and “excuse”, the legal prohibition of intentional killing outside self-defence, the incommensurability of goods, and the legal constrains to the use of lethal force set by normative positions: obligations, responsibility, rights, and authority. For each of these principles and constrains the possible application to the programming of autonomous vehicles is discussed. Based on the analysis, some practical suggestions are offered.

Ethics of autonomous vehicles
Ethics of self-driving cars
Legal doctrine of necessity
Robot ethics
Trolley problem

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:587b4a9d-5e60-4ae9-b01d-2e28d1389875

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-017-9780-7

1386-2820

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice: an international forum, 20 (2), 411-429

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2017 F. Santoni De Sio