The Ethics Commission on Automated Driving set up by the German Federal Minister Alexander Dobrindt presented its report. In this report, the body of experts, headed by Professor Udo Di Fabio, a former Federal Constitutional Court judge, has developed guidelines for the programming of automated driving systems.
The Ethics Commission's report comprises 20 propositions. The key elements are:
- Automated and connected driving is an ethical imperative if the systems cause fewer accidents than human drivers (positive balance of risk).
- Damage to property must take precedence over personal injury. In hazardous situations, the protection of human life must always have top priority.
- In the event of unavoidable accident situations, any distinction between individuals based on personal features (age, gender, physical or mental constitution) is impermissible.
- In every driving situation, it must be clearly regulated and apparent who is responsible for the driving task: the human or the computer.
- It must be documented and stored who is driving (to resolve possible issues of liability, among other things).
- Drivers must always be able to decide themselves whether their vehicle data are to be forwarded and used (data sovereignty).
A summary of the report in English language could be found here.
The full report in German language is available here.
Source: BMVI