INTERVIEW
It is supposed to revolutionize car transport. The autonomous car promises more comfort and even fewer accidents. But in some cases, when these are inevitable, how will she react? Jean-François Bonnefon, author of the book The car that knew too much , looked in particular at this question. And for the doctor in psychology, invited from Europe 1 Sunday, the autonomous car poses an ethical problem, "that accidents that the driverless car will be allowed to have".
Who to save in case of an accident?
At the head of an expert committee on autonomous cars at the European Commission, Jean-François Bonnefon wonders in particular "how many accidents will we tolerate"? In extreme cases, where the accident is inevitable, "the car will have to choose between several victims," he continues.
Therefore, how to choose who the car will save in priority? To answer this question, Jean-François Bonnefon relied on public opinion. On a digital platform named Moral Machine , this doctor in psychology has already received "more than 100 million responses" from around the world. Internet users are confronted with "cases of unavoidable accidents". There are thirteen types of scenarios in total such as: "Do we prefer to save as many?", "Do we prefer to save children to adults?" or "Do we prefer to save humans to animals?"
Extreme dilemmas that Jean-François Bonnefon wants to put into perspective. These accidents "will be so rare" according to him, "that it is unlikely that an individual will be confronted one day". "It's a problem to think about globally."
Three main conclusions
This experience allowed Jean-François Bonnefon to draw three main conclusions. According to the doctor of psychology, worldwide, Internet users prefer to "save humans before animals" in priority. Then they want to save as many people as possible. Finally, according to them, they must "give priority to the lives of children".
These preferences, observed on the site, "are universal". "In all countries, we will prefer to save children to adults or older people," says Jean-François Bonnefon. Thanks to these answers, he hopes to "inform the legislators" who will have to decide on the standards to be respected by autonomous cars. "Take the right decisions," says Jean-François Bonnefon, "but anticipate that some of these decisions could be extremely unpopular."