Meaningful human control as reason-responsiveness

Meaningful human control as reason-responsiveness: the case of dual-mode vehicles

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

2019

In this paper, in line with the general framework of value-sensitive design, we aim to operationalize the general concept of “Meaningful Human Control” (MHC) in order to pave the way for its translation into more specific design requirements. In particular, we focus on the operationalization of the first of the two conditions (Santoni de Sio and Van den Hoven 2018) investigated: the so-called ‘tracking’ condition. Our investigation is led in relation to one specific subcase of automated system: dual-mode driving systems (e.g. Tesla ‘autopilot’). First, we connect and compare meaningful human control with a concept of control very popular in engineering and traffic psychology (Michon 1985), and we explain to what extent tracking resembles and differs from it. This will help clarifying the extent to which the idea of meaningful human control is connected to, but also goes beyond, current notions of control in engineering and psychology. Second, we take the systematic analysis of practical reasoning as traditionally presented in the philosophy of human action (Anscombe, Bratman, Mele) and we adapt it to offer a general framework where different types of reasons and agents are identified according to their relation to an automated system’s behaviour. This framework is meant to help explaining what reasons and what agents (should) play a role in controlling a given system, thereby enabling policy makers to produce usable guidelines and engineers to design systems that properly respond to selected human reasons. In the final part, we discuss a practical example of how our framework could be employed in designing automated driving systems.

Accountability for autonomous systems
Ethics of human–robot interaction
Ethics of self-driving cars
Meaningful human control
Proximity scale of reasons
Responsible innovation in self-driving cars

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ac72791e-9ebf-448f-acb9-1c932a59b10a

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-019-09519-w

1388-1957

Ethics and Information Technology, 22 (2), 103-115

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2019 G. Mecacci, F. Santoni De Sio