The ethical discussion of autonomous vehicles has been fairly one-sided. It has focused on two related questions: how vehicles should behave in case of an unavoidable crash and who is responsible if the vehicle crashes.

In a forthcoming article (published online), I criticize the debate on ethical crashing and argue that it is flawed in two ways: there is something wrong about the method and there is something wrong about the focus. Moreover, I argue that instead of fixing the methodological issues, the debate should shift to the broader issue of what safety requirements we should demand from autonomous vehicles. I list a few preliminary questions that philosopher can engage with in relation to answering such questions in a way that is policy relevant.

If you want to read more, you can find the full-text article here.