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While we are exploring hypothetical scenarios, here's one. A schoolbus full of young children has lost its brakes and is careening down a hill toward an almost
by brianmcconnell 11y ago
While we are exploring hypothetical scenarios, here's one.
A schoolbus full of young children has lost its brakes and is careening down a hill toward an almost certainly lethal high speed impact with a building at the bottom of the hill.
Two Google cars are idling at an intersection halfway down the hill. Both determine that if one of them pulls in front of the bus just so, it will result in a survivable crash (for the kids on the school bus). But which car should go?
Both cars run a PANN (psychometric artificial neural network) analysis of their owner's email. Car A determines that its owner is an abusive sociopath. Car B determines that its owner is a nice person, newly wed and possibly pregnant. The each compare their owner's PANN scores.
Car A signals "CARMA program activated. Taking one for the team!"
The schoolbus plows into Car A, which absorbs most of the impact. The kids are fine, minor injuries only, but the owner of Car A expires before the fire department can extract him with the jaws of life.
- thoughtpalette 11y agoThis is the most interesting answer I've heard to this question so far. Will be using this when in conversation with friends.
- bewatson 11y agoVery interesting hypo. "CARMA" made me laugh. Another element to consider is if there are fleets of empty and unmaned cars on the road (eg an Uber), an empty car could take the hit to skip the single unnecessary death.