Approximately 90 percent of traffic accidents are due to human error. Autonomous vehicles therefore hold great potential for road safety. However, even innovative risk minimization technologies will never be able to prevent all accidents. Self-driving cars will even encounter dilemma situations in which similar harm occurs as a result of all available options for action (»moral emergencies«). The project addresses the question how autonomous vehicles should be programmed for such moral emergencies.
This will be achieved through a combination of research in mathematical engineering, empirical and normative research. Moral emergencies will be systematically investigated in an elaborated virtual reality environment that employ innovative impartiality settings. Both a driving simulator and the Vehicle in the Loop of the Bundeswehr University Munich are used. Ethical and legal conclusions for the regulation of autonomous vehicles will then be based on the results of the empirical studies.
Project duration: 01.01.2021 bis 31.12.2024
Paulo, Norbert, and Lando Kirchmair, 2025:
»Selbstfahrende Autos – wie soll über Leben und Tod entschieden werden?« #philosophieorientiert. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer
Paulo, Norbert, and Lando Kirchmair, 2024:
»Moral Dilemmas Involving Self-Driving Cars: How to Regulate Them and Why Your Opinion Matters.« New York, NY: Routledge
Paulo, N., Kirchmaier, L., Möck, L.:
»The Use and Abuse of Moral Preferences in the Ethics of Self-Driving Cars«, in: F. Aguiar, A. Gaitán & H. Viciana (Hrsg.), Issues in Experimental Moral Philosophy, Routledge (im Erscheinen)
Kirchmaier, L., Krempelmeier, S.:
»Mit Auto-Autos gegen die Klimakrise?: Warum bei der Regulierung autonomer Fahrzeuge Nachhaltigkeitsüberlegungen eine Rolle spielen sollten«, VerfBlog, 2021/12/09, https://verfassungsblog.de/mit-auto-autos-gegen-die-klimakrise/, DOI: 10.17176/20211209-112302-0
July 12, 2024
EMERGENCY-VRD Workshop
»Moral and Legal Aspects of Autonomous Systems«
Presentation by Prof. Dr. Sven Nyholm (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München); Prof. Dr. Laura A. Dickinson (George Washington University); Prof. Dr. Eirini Ntoutsi (University of the Bundeswehr München); Prof. Dr. Paul Schiff Berman (George Washington University); Prof. Dr. Yochanan Bigman (The Hebrew University)
October 7, 2022
EMERGENCY-VRD Workshop
»Moral Dilemmas Involving Self-Driving Cars«
Keynote by Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Duke University)
March 8, 2022:
Presentation by Leonie Möck at the conference »Defense and Security in Germany« (Bonn)
Title of the talk:
»How should moral emergencies caused by autonomous vehicles be regulated? What experimental philosophy can contribute to answering this question«.
Project Lead
Universität der Bundeswehr München
Department of Social Sciences and Public Affairs
Institute of Cultural Studies
National and International Public Law
with a Focus on the Protection of Cultural Heritage
(deputy professor)
Tel: +49 89 6004-2812
Email: lando.kirchmair@unibw.de
www.unibw.de/kuwi-en
Project Lead
Universität der Bundeswehr München
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Institute of Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computing
Professorship for Engineering Mathematics
Tel.: +49 89 6004-2672
Email: matthias.gerdts@unibw.de
www.unibw.de/ingmathe
Project Lead
Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU)
School of Transformation and Sustainability
Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Digitalization
Email: norbert.paulo@ku.de
Universität der Bundeswehr München
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Institute of Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computing
Email: thomas.rottmann@unibw.de
www.unibw.de/ingmathe
Pictures: © Angelika Wagener