• UGI USER
  • Nov 03, 2022
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Tesla’s Autopilot faces unprecedented scrutiny

Why in News?

Autonomous vehicle manufacturer Tesla faces their biggest challenge since the launch of autopilot in 2015 as a series of lawsuits and a criminal case over fatal Tesla accidents head to court.

 

What are Autonomous vehicles?

A driverless car is a vehicle which can sense its surrounding environment and can navigate without human input. It combines multiple sensors and techniques to perceive their surroundings like radar, laser light, GPS, odometer, computer vision, etc.

Benefits associated with the use of Autonomous vehicles:

 

Ethical issues involved

  • Accountability: In the case of any crash, it would arise an issue of accountability whether the car owner would be accountable or the manufacturer of that vehicle.
  • Law vs Ethics: Autonomous cars are made to follow traffic rules strictly. But sometimes traffic rules have to be compromised.
    • For example when a critical patient has to be taken to the hospital.
  • Displaying human values: When the vehicle finds an injured person or an old lady, will it stop to help them and display the qualities of compassion and empathy?
    • will it stop by an accident and act as a good samaritan if the need arises?
  • Impacts on Environment: This will promote vehicle usage at a time when the objective is to reduce vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
  • Automation vs Human livelihoods: Job loss to drivers without compensatory skill development and job creation.
    • It is believed that in the coming future automation will kill 69% of the job.
  • Hacking/privacy vs security- There is a problem if a car is hacked and programmed for killing. Also, problems related to the privacy of people.

 

Conclusion:

As the debate around Autonomous vehicles and ethics intensifies due to the increasing adoption of self-driving cars, we hope that strict laws and regulations will be developed that can finally answer the questions in a correct, justifiable manner.

 

Mains Links:

What do you understand by Autonomous Vehicles? Discuss the ethical issues involved in using autonomous vehicles.