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Since 2009 to today - when many companies are been involved in selling or prototyping driverless vehicles -, the debate on the Ethical, Legal and Societal (ELS) issues of autonomous vehicles intensified, especially following some serious and lethal incidents. The workshop addresses through 5 areas of study the main ELS problems present today in the design, production and use of autonomous vehicles.
"An Introduction to Roboethics"
Gianmarco Veruggio
"Robotics is a new science that is emerging from the convergence of most of the current disciplines, both technical-scientific and humanistic, and that is beginning to reveal its real potential to the general public so far accustomed to considering it only a special effect in science fiction films . However, as in any other area of progress, the classic problem of dual use is emerging. In fact, considering the power of robotics, the countless useful and beneficial applications must match all the possible number of harmful applications that would plunge humanity into one of the many dystopic futures that science fiction has painted. However, even without imagining such catastrophic outcomes, any application of robotics and artificial intelligence raises ethical, legal, psychological and social issues. For this reason, given the complexity of the topic, it is important to deepen the debate in the roboetic field, particularly in those sectors that are now mature to invade the market with commercial products such as autonomous driving vehicles."
"Smart Mobility. Smart Vehicles in a Smart City"
Barbara Masini
"The automotive industry is undergoing key technological transformations, more and more vehicles are connected to the Internet and to each other, and advance toward higher automation levels. Future automated vehicles will have to rely not only on their own sensors, but also on those of other vehicles, and will need to cooperate with each other. After a first shot on the scenario, this speech discusses the challenges that the underlying communication system has to face so as the new perception of mobility as a service."
"The civil liability from the driver to the vehicle: the switchover"
Valeria De Palma
"The prediction of the new risks connected to what seemed to be the beneficial aspects of self-driving cars, has implied a legal reaction of profound mistrust that has confirmed the presence of a legal order still too tied to the traditional legislative institutions. In this transitional phase it is necessary to examine and evaluate the current principles of our Civil Code to which it is possible to cling to in order to start preparing specific regulations for self-driving cars. The concept of Civil Responsibility will have to be shaped to the new needs and a commonly subjective imputation will lead to a purely objective conception: a real transfer of responsibility from the driver to the vehicle."
"Roboethical Elements in Autonomous Vehicle"s
Fiorella Operto
Autonomous vehicles (cars, vessels, trains, etc) are outlined as the next-to-be market ed service robots to be used by the layman consumer. They are really powerful tools, but bigger power results in a greater responsibility! Scientists, engineers, sociologists, futurologists, and not least insurance experts are involvedin releasing researches on AI and autonomous robots ELS issues. From the roboethical point of view, it is important to discern and analyze the underlying assumptions on which the dependability, safety and security solutions have been adopted by producer companies, as well as the regulation amendments. Actually, all these are many actions and solutions of which developers might not recognizethe ethical elements embodied. If the rationale is not made public, users cannot responsibly gauge risks and on them balance his/her behaviors. For a responsible use of any autonomous vehicle, users have to be prepared to deal with robots, to understand how they perform missions and ethical legal and societal issues implied in a learning machine.
TEAM
Gianmarco Veruggio
Research Manager CNR-IEIIT
Barbara Masini
Researcher at CNR-IEIIT
Fiorella Operto
School of Robotics
Valeria De Palma
Lawyer
WORKSHOP
Since 2009 (Google project for self-driving car) to today - when many companies are being involved in selling or prototyping driverless vehicles (cars: Tesla, Waymo, Ford, Gm, Toyota,and Rolls-Royce for ships) -, the debate on the Ethical, Legal and Societal (ELS) issues of autonomous vehicles intensified, especially following some serious and lethal incidents.
Autonomous vehicles (cars, vessels, trains, etc) are the next-to-be marketed service robots. Autonomous vehicle robots – is that what autonomous vehicles are in fact – are powerful tools. And bigger power results in a greater responsibility.
Scientists, engineers, sociologists, futurologists, and not least insurance experts are involved in releasing researches on AI and autonomous robots ELS issues. The National Transport Authorities in Europe, United States and Asia have introduced amendments to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic with new guidelines for automated vehicles
From the roboethical point of view, it is important to discern and analyse the underlying assumptions adopted for dependability, safety and security solutions by producer companies, as well as the regulation amendments. Actually, all these are many actions and solutions of which developers might not recognize the ethical elements embodied. National Transport Authorities and consumers demand more Transparency.
ELS choices in self driving vehicles regard some fundamental issues about human rights.
These are:
• Respect and protection of human dignity and privacy;
• Right for physical and integrity of the person;
• Right for liberty and security;
• Right to protection of personal data;
And the areas more concerned are the following:
• Human Dignity and Privacy.
• Liability and responsibility issues.
• Psychological effects of robots on human logical and emotional structures, and on human relationships.
The vehicle's level of autonomy effects in a fundamental the human right indicated, because it concerns with all the factors involved in human safety, protection of privacy, liability issues, and the psychological effects robot might have on humans. If the autonomous vehicle works with machine learning, engineers could aim to increase car's level of autonomy, relying on the machine learning.
The proposed workshop will try to outline the ELS problems of autonomous vehicles from various points of view. After an overview of the main technological scenarios involved, the meta ethical assumptions present in some engineering decisions related to the performance autonomous cars, will be discussed. These decisions should become transparent to regulators and users in order to allow appropriate choices and actions. When the rationale behind technological decision is not clearly expressed, users cannot responsible decide what car to buy, how to use it, and the risk involved. User's informed consent is important when it's about an innovative technology, whose performance is not completely understood and tested.
With regards the institution of civil liability connected to self-driving cars, it is necessary to analyse multiple and different aspects to be analysed. In fact, the new risks and the negative implications connected to those aspects of self-driving cars that at first seemed to be the best aspects, have actually implied a juridical reaction that, instead, has caused a deep distrust of our legal system still too tied to traditional legislative institutions.
It will be identified those that appear to be the main regulatory policy issues that seem to actively hinder the introduction of self-driving cars, such as the absolute lack of legislative figures able to assess the legal repercussions that progress necessarily entails; and - at the same time - we will try to provide effective answers to questions in the legal field through a critical, third and impartial reading of the rules that we currently have available and to exploit.
