Autonomous Cars Ethics
This brick will help you provide to your students with an overview of the ethical implications of autonomous cars technology.
Questions? Contact the creator!
This educational unit contains:
- Ad hoc slides and a video lecture
- Further resources to use in class
- Ideas for possible teaching and assessment approaches
Learning Objectives
- The computing learning objective is to understand how requirements are defined so that the autonomous vehicles fulfill nonfunctional requirements of ethics and social sustainability.
- The ethical learning objectives are to understand the role of technical and social/individual ethical issues of autonomous vehicles:
- Technical issues involve safety, security, privacy, transparency, algorithmic fairness, reliability, environmental sustainability, intelligent behavior control, trans-disciplinary-systemic approach, and quality.
- Social/individual issues include non-maleficence, stakeholder involvement, beneficence, responsibility and accountability, freedom and autonomy, social sustainability, social fairness, dignity and solidarity, social trust, justice, legislation, standards, norms, policies and guidelines.
- The transversal learning objective is to be able to connect knowledge and insights from the technical and the social domain.
Prerequisites
Foundational knowledge of computing and Foundational Ethics in Computing
Should I teach this?
- Suitable for teaching in Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Other courses
- Domain: Information Technology
- Disciplines: Computing Ethics/Digital Ethics, Artificial Intelligence, Human Computer Interface, Interaction Design, Software Engineering/Requirements Engineering, Social Aspects, and Sustainable Development
Suggested teaching approaches
The students are introduced to published research on general digital ethics and specifically to ethics of autonomous vehicles (AVs).
Slides and recording of the introductory lecture are available in the Resources section. The lecture is divided in 2 parts, each containing a number of modules. The teacher can choose to teach as many modules as desired.
The lecture is divided in 2 parts, each containing a number of modules. The teacher can choose to teach as many modules as desired.
Ethics in Human-centric Design
- Ethics and morality
- Normative systems
- Classical ethical approaches
- Ethics for design
- Designer’s codes of Ethics
The Case of Autonomous Cars Ethics
- Development of AVs
- Trolley Problem’s unsolvability
- Real-world engineering ethics of AV’s
- Technical challenges to AV ethics
- Social challenges to AV ethics
- Ethical guidelines
- Further reading
After the lecture, possibly preceded by individual literature studies, students are involved in a discussion on the way technical and ethical issues have been addressed currently, especially the problems with “Trolley problem” type approaches. The discussion may involve role play.
You might want to organize class discussions in parallel sessions (small classrooms/breakout rooms) opposing facts vs opinions, legal vs ethical aspects. The students are asked to use what they have learned from reading and the lecture. The debate concludes with the full class panel discussion.
Suggested assessment approaches
Include some questions in your written exam
Based on the lecture material, and dependent on the form this brick is used, either as a part of a course on technical subject or of a course on digital ethics/computing ethics, open-ended questions can be formulated in order to test students understanding of the subject of autonomous cars ethics.
Make students write a research article
Depending on the time available, part of the examination may be in the form of a written essay. Based on the literature, students choose a topic for a research article, approved by the teacher. It is necessary to have at least one iteration/consultation with the teacher/TA during the writing process. Articles can aim to be published, for students to further deepen their knowledge of the field.
Organize a mini Conference
Class presents their research articles on a Mini conference that resembles real life research conferences with presentations, followed by discussion.
Resources
Introductory lecture
Here you can find a PowerPoint presentation and a recording of the introductory lecture.
Further reading
- A collection pf papers for GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- A collection of papers on Al-ETHICS
- A collection of papers on ALGORITHMS & DECISION MAKING
- A collection of papers on AUTOMATED DRIVING
- A collection of papers on the COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE
- A collection of papers on CYBER-PHYSICAL SYSTEMS
- A collection of papers on ETHICS IN EDUCATION
- A collection of papers on PRIVACY
- A collection of papers on RESPONSIBILITY
- A collection of papers on SAFETY
- A collection of papers on the TROLLEY PROBLEM
- What Do We Teach When We Teach Tech Ethics? A Syllabi Analysis
Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education 2020. - Martin, D. A., Conlon, E., and Bowe B. (2019) The role of role-play in student awareness of the social dimension of the engineering profession. European Journal of Engineering Education 44.6: 882-905
- Spiekermann, S. (2015) Ethical IT Innovation: A Value-Based System Design Approach. Taylor & Francis.
- Kvalnes, Ø. (2019) Moral Reasoning at Work. Rethinking Ethics in Organizations. Springer Nature, Open Access.
- Ramaswamy, S., and Joshi, H. (2009) Automation and Ethics. In Springer Handbook of Automation. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
- Lin, P. (2015) Why Ethics Matters for Autonomous Cars. In Autonomes Fahren. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Open Access.
- Dignum, V. (2019) Responsible Artificial Intelligence: How to Develop and Use AI in a Responsible Way. Springer Nature.
You can find other interesting resources on Medium, Edge and YouTube
Evaluate your teaching
Don’t forget to evaluate your teaching! Did the students meet the learning objectives? You can ask the class to fill a questionnaire to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The idea is that you can always improve your lectures and the resources based on the students’ feedback.
Let us know how we did
Do you think the resources can be ameliorated?
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