Abstract
Despite numerous ethical examinations of automated vehicles, philosophers have neglected to address how these technologies will affect vulnerable people. To account for this lacuna, researchers must analyze how driverless cars could hinder or help social justice. In addition to thinking through these aspects, scholars must also pay attention to the extensive moral dimensions of automated vehicles, including how they will affect the public, nonhumans, future generations, and culturally significant artifacts. If planners and engineers undertake this task, then they will have to prioritize their efforts to avoid additional harm. The author shows how employing an approach called a “complex moral assessment” can help professionals implement these technologies into existing mobility systems in a just and moral fashion.
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Notes
Most of the examples in this paper are from the United States of America (US).
The term “vulnerable” in this context includes people who exclusively depend on transportation services or who are suffering or who would suffer if such services were removed from society due to lacking a realistic alternative. This conception includes but is not limited to differently abled individuals, marginalized groups that have been historically and or systematically discriminated against, and senior citizens who lack no other means to travel. I expect that there are also outlier instances that do not perfectly fit within the description above. Such cases will require additional assessment.
It is worth mentioning that the current administration favors industry, meaning that their guidelines for AVs do not make the same room for ethical considerations. For example, see: https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/608859/new-driverless-car-guidelines-dont-provide-much-guidance/.
It might be useful to think about this issue in the context of robot ethics. See: Wallach and Allen (2008). Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong. New York: Oxford University Press. Also there is a critical account of the trolley problem for AVs that deserves attention; see: Nyholm and Smids (2016). The Ethics of Accident-algorithms for Self-driving Cars: An Applied Trolley Problem?. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 19(5), 1275–1289.
OPAL, http://www.opalpdx.org; Bus Riders Unite, http://www.opalpdx.org/bus-riders-unite/; Urban Habitat, http://urbanhabitat.org; On the Move, http://bostononthemove.org; UPROSE, https://www.uprose.org; ACCE Riders for Justice, http://www.acceaction.org/oakland; Rainier Beach Transit Justice Project, http://www.rbcoalition.org/rainier-beach-transit-justice-youth-corp-completes-metro-mural-their-latest-project-to-better-our-community-transportation-wise/.
The California Public Utilities Commission coined the term “Transportation Network Company.” See http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M077/K112/77112285.PDF.
There is good reason to argue that the majority of AVs will be electric. For more information, see: Securing America’s Future Energy (2017). SAFE Analysis Shows 80 Percent of Light-Duty Autonomous Vehicles Use Alternative Fuel Powertrains. http://secureenergy.org/press/safe-analysis-shows-80-percent-light-duty-autonomous-vehicles-use-alternative-fuel-powertrains/. Accessed 4 July 2017.
For an in-depth examination about moral responsibility in such cases, see Epting 2016a
For a detailed account of restorative justice, see: Gavrielides, T. and Artinopoulou, V. (2013). Reconstructing Restorative Justice Philosophy. Burington, VT: Ashgate.
To get an idea of the breadth of topics that fall under transportation justice, see: Martens (2016). Transport justice: Designing fair transportation systems. Routledge. Also, see: Attoh (2012). The transportation disadvantaged and the right to the city in Syracuse, New York. The Geographical Bulletin, 53(1), 1. Also, see: Epting (2016b)
For a recent discussion on best practices for transport, see: McLeod et al. (2017). Urban Public Transport: Planning Principles and Emerging Practice. Journal of Planning Literature, 32(3) 223–239.
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Epting, S. Automated Vehicles and Transportation Justice. Philos. Technol. 32, 389–403 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-018-0307-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-018-0307-5