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The Trolley Dilemma in Artificial Intelligence Solutions for Autonomous Vehicle Safety

Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The issue of choosing a solution using artificial intelligence (AI) to control an autonomous vehicle to ensure passenger safety in dangerous conditions is considered. To determine the best solution, use the utility function l(x) to characterize losses, where l(x) ≠ 0. It is proposed to resolve the conflict between the two main ethical approaches, which are represented by the trolley dilemma, when using AI in autonomous vehicles to adhere to five universal ethical rules: damage to property is better than harming a person; AI is prohibited from classifying people by any criteria; the manufacturer is responsible for an emergency situation with AI; ensuring the possibility for a person to intervene in the decision-making process in a situation with uncertainty; provide for the process of testing AI actions by a third independent party. Five steps are suggested that organizations working on developing AI for autonomous vehicle control should follow: create an AI ethics committee that will consider possible solutions to the dilemma and take responsibility for developing an AI action algorithm; evaluate each AI application for its degree of compliance with ethical values adopted in the country; determine the utility loss function, possible trade-offs and boundary conditions, as well as criteria for evaluating the model's performance for their intended purpose; design the AI model to support decision-making in such a way that a person can intervene to correct the decision under conditions of uncertainty; establish rules that may or may not be required to ensure that special cases are properly included in the utility function.
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4411845589
FWCI:
Cites: 16
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Related to: 10