As the development of autonomous vehicles proceeds full-speed ahead, it is often said that this new, disruptive form of transportation will change everything. Such a claim has drawn both philosophical and public attention to what could be called ethical emergencies: imaginary situations ranging from life-or-death trolley-problem conundrums to large-scale cyber-attacks on mobility networks. This perspective puts other important, but less dramatic, ethical dilemmas connected with driverless vehicles at risk of being underexplored or simply ignored. The primary focus of the original essays collected together in this volume shifts to considering these issues, ones arising out of more everyday human-autonomous vehicle relations and encounters. Topics investigated range from how driverless vehicles ethically affect what it is to be a pedestrian to how they could inspire more opportunities for social justice, along with a consideration of the need for policy makers to look at the softer impacts of driverless cars. Overall, this volume contributes to defining a new area of exploration connected to the ethics of driverless vehicles, one that should appeal not only to philosophers of technology but to engineering designers, regulators, and urban planners as well.
Diane P. Michelfelder is professor of philosophy at Macalester College. Her scholarly interests focus on the ethical dimensions of our relations to, and the design of, Internet-embedded technologies and technological systems. A past president of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, she is currently co-editor-in-chief of that society's journal, Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology.
1. Introduction: The Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles in Everyday Environments Diane P. Michelfelder / 2. The Freedom and Intentionality of a Carriage, an Automobile, and an Autonomous Vehicle Galit Wellner / 3. The Ethics of Crossing the Street Robert Kirkland / 4. Traffic Safety and Responsibility Sven Ove Hansson / 5. TBD Sven Nyholm / 6. Stop Saying that Driverless Cars will Eliminate Driver Distraction Robert Kirkman / 7. The Mundane and the Monotonous: Designing Autonomous Vehicles for Daily (Urban) Life Taylor Stone, Filippo Santoni de Sio, Pieter Vermaas / 8. Automated Vehicles and Environmental Justice: Addressing the Challenge Ahead Shane Epting / 9. Vehicles of Change: The Role of Regulation in Balancing Human Costs, Ethical Risks, and Social Benefits of a Rapidly Evolving Technology Jeremy Carp and Patrick Schmidt / 10. Planes, Trains, and Flying Taxis: Ethics and the Lure of Autonomous Vehicles Joseph Herkert, Jacob Borenstein, and Keith Miller / 11. Test-driving Politics. On Politicizing the Ethics of Autonomous Cars Andreas Wolkenstein 12. Strategic Foresight and Analysis of Autonomous Technologies Darryl Farber / 13. Imagining a Driverless Culture: The Assessment of Soft Impacts of Emerging Technologies Tjallimg Swierstra, Tamar Sharon-Schneidleder, Ike Kamphof
