Come on Steely, a green talking about ethics. What an oxymoron.

Of course the questions are difficult to answer because of the variables that are left out.

What sort of car am I driving?
What make of car am I driving?
What is the efficiency of its brakes?
How many turns from lock to lock on the steering?
Power or manual steering?
Automatic or manual transmission, or a combination?
Type and make of tyres?
My reaction time?
Does the car have foot emergency brakes and a hand driving brake or does it have foot driving brakes and a hand parking brake?
Is it petrol, electric or diesel powered?

I won't throw in a steam car as there are so few of them on the road, but they (usually) have a significant stopping factor that most other cars don't have; that is the ability to go into reverse under power.

The ethical and legal issues with automated cars are not new and have had to be considered when building other systems. This is something engineers and programmers have to deal with as part of their job.

If an autonomous car kills a pedestrian, then it is unlikely the occupants of the car, including the "driver", would be considered at fault. The car's manufacturer or the individual software engineer might be at fault, if this was a problem they should have anticipated. However, it may be that no one is at fault.

Decision making will have to be programmed into autonomous vehicles, just as it is in to system which make life and death decisions every day. It will not be the cars making the ethical choices, but those who program them.

You ask "Whose safety is paramount?" and "Would you purchase a car ... that doesn't place your and your family's well-being at the top of the list?". The public interest, is likely to be considered paramount, so no you will not be able to buy a car which puts your family first. Cars will be programmed to preserve the lives of a larger number of pedestrians, over a smaller number of passengers. In such a situation the car may be programmed to ignore manual input, just as cars are already programmed to ignore the driver if there is a risk of a rollover.

This week I am giving an annual lecture on ICT ethics to students at the Australian National University. For this I use the code of ethics of the Australian Computer Society, but these codes are much the same for all professional bodies. They place the "Public Interest" above that of an individual client: http://www.tomw.net.au/basic_ict_professional_ethics/

Dear SteeleRedux,

I can't answer what I would do at the critical
moment. It all depends on the curcumstances,
emotional conditions, and unforeseen physical,
mental, and other factors involved at the split
moment. Therefore, yes I do have a problem
answering your questions.

A machine can only be programmed for a limited
number of reactions. And is not capable to be
programmed for infinitesable reactions to ever
changing circumstances that even the human brain
cannot predict.

cont'd ...

BTW - Did you happen to watch on SBS - Monday evening,
"The Brain with David Eagleman?"
I found the program very interesting.
David Eagleman took a journey "through the unseen
world of decisions and how they get made."

Hi Sgteele,

I was so excited by your post:

"That is already happening. For instance earlier this year GM put up half a billion dollars in a partnership with Lyft, an Uber competitor, to develop a network of driverless cars.

http://www.wired.com/2016/01/gm-and-lyft-are-building-a-network-of-self-driving-cars/#slide-1

"This may well mean the pressure for individual car ownership will diminish since the expense of registration, insurance, upkeep, garaging, and parking may be an expense people will be happy to forego if the convenience is there."

This could usher in a new era in transportation, in which larger vehicles are hired on a trip-by-trip basis, perhaps with a "driver" to collect "fares" and to ferry all "passengers" from convenient and designated "stops" to where they want to go, thus offering a service at relatively low cost - in Latin, they would use the word "omnibus" meaning "for everybody", but we could shorten it to, I don't know, how about "bus" ?

Joe