4 ms·

It's unavoidable. Let's say a self driving car realizes that it is on an unavoidable collusion course, but changes in it's behavior (steering) will change wher

by lev99 8y ago

It's unavoidable. Let's say a self driving car realizes that it is on an unavoidable collusion course, but changes in it's behavior (steering) will change where it collides. That's the trolley problem.

SahAssar 8y ago
If I have understood it correctly in most self driving cars the actual AI/ML part is recognition of the scene/area, not deciding the action or outcome of such a situation. Either way this is one of the reasons I'm not wild about the crazy self-driving race.
- cpeterso 8y ago
  An autonomous car must decide at every moment whether to brake, accelerate, swerve left, swerve right, or do nothing. Otherwise the car is not very autonomous. :) If it senses an unavoidable collusion ahead, it will need to choose from possible reactions that each have different consequences for the various people and property. Someone has to program or train the car what to value when choosing its reaction. The car will be biased, implicitly or explicitly, by the programmer's values.
  - sterlind 8y ago
    If you make the car flip a coin (perhaps a weighted coin, on the strength of the belief in its sensor data), you avoid providing a solution to the trolley problem. Alternatively, you can have the people vote on a self-driving car referendum, which specifies a DMV-enforced policy for the trolley problem. As a society we vote on such matters all the time. Nothing new here.
    - cpeterso 8y ago
      Flipping a coin is still a conscious decision by the programmer. MIT created an online survey called the Moral Machine asking people to choose who a car should hit in various (randomized and user-created) scenarios. Data like that could be used to train a "fair" AI. It's an interesting thought experiment but the survey's scenarios are unrealistic and include information that a car AI would not have available, e.g. person A is homeless and has no children while person B is a wealthy executive in good health. http://moralmachine.mit.edu/ http://moralmachine.mit.edu/

by lev99 8y ago

SahAssar 8y ago

If I have understood it correctly in most self driving cars the actual AI/ML part is recognition of the scene/area, not deciding the action or outcome of such a situation. Either way this is one of the reasons I'm not wild about the crazy self-driving race.

cpeterso 8y ago
An autonomous car must decide at every moment whether to brake, accelerate, swerve left, swerve right, or do nothing. Otherwise the car is not very autonomous. :) If it senses an unavoidable collusion ahead, it will need to choose from possible reactions that each have different consequences for the various people and property. Someone has to program or train the car what to value when choosing its reaction. The car will be biased, implicitly or explicitly, by the programmer's values.
- sterlind 8y ago
  If you make the car flip a coin (perhaps a weighted coin, on the strength of the belief in its sensor data), you avoid providing a solution to the trolley problem. Alternatively, you can have the people vote on a self-driving car referendum, which specifies a DMV-enforced policy for the trolley problem. As a society we vote on such matters all the time. Nothing new here.
  - cpeterso 8y ago
    Flipping a coin is still a conscious decision by the programmer. MIT created an online survey called the Moral Machine asking people to choose who a car should hit in various (randomized and user-created) scenarios. Data like that could be used to train a "fair" AI. It's an interesting thought experiment but the survey's scenarios are unrealistic and include information that a car AI would not have available, e.g. person A is homeless and has no children while person B is a wealthy executive in good health. http://moralmachine.mit.edu/ http://moralmachine.mit.edu/