Silent electronic killers

JUST weeks after an Ohio man was thought to be the first fatality of a driverless car crash, experts have raised the possibility that artificially intelligent vehicles might decide to sacrifice occupants if it means saving the lives of other drivers or pedestrians.

Joshua Brown was thought to have been watching a film when his Tesla Model S crashed into a truck. Authorities are now investigating the incident, which occurred in semi-autonomous mode. 

Earlier this month Science journal published an interesting survey into the question of what an autonomous car should do when confronted with a deadly safety calculation.

A vast majority of respondents agreed that driverless cars should be programmed to sacrifice ‘drivers’ if the alternative was taking out a dozen pedestrians. 

Oddly enough a similar majority said they would only purchase such cars if they were programmed to always put their life first.