Here’s a tough question: Would you sacrifice your own life to save someone else’s? For instance, if there was a child in the road and the only way to avoid them was to swerve off a cliff, would you?

How about this one: On a narrow, winding mountain road you suddenly approach a group of bicyclists. With no time to brake, you could swerve onto the left side of the road… if there weren’t a motorcyclist approaching from the other direction. Do you swerve off the cliff to the right, into the motorcyclist on the left, or try to brake while mowing down a few cyclists?

Here’s one more doozy for you: Could you make this type of decision for yourself? Or, would you prefer your smart car to make the choice for you?

Since many new cars come with crash-avoidance features, and autonomous cars are in our near-future, programmers are considering these ethical dilemmas and how they will be applied in future cars. But, there’s even more to it than that. Manufacturers must also consider how they will deal with ethics, ethics settings, and liability.

The fine folks over at Wired wrote a thorough and interesting piece on ethics settings in future cars. See the full story here:

Here’s A Terrible Idea: Robot Cars With Adjustable Ethics Settings