„TROLLEYOLOGY” AND AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES – MORAL AND LEGAL QUESTIONS ON THE APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF DOUBLE EFFECT

• Authors: Pődör Lea
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper focuses on a classical problem of ethics and law: the doctrine of double effect (DDE). Nowadays the doctrine is more and more popular since AI-technology and super- intelligent machines have been developing rapidly. Maybe autonomous vehicles’ most difficult dilemma is the following scenario: an autonomous car gets into an extreme road accident (collision) and the software should “decide” which direction-alternative to choose, but all of those possibilities end with death of human(s). This is a problem which requires a morally and legally justified answer. The principle emphasizes how to achieve a moral justification, what can be the classical cases of DDE and how to solve the most famous classical case, the trolley problem – which can be analogous to autonomous cars’ collision- case. The paper also higlights whether the doctrine is relevant from the perspective of legal justification and legal solutions, too.

Keywords

EN

autonomous vehicles; doctrine of double effect; law and morals; moral decisionmaking; moral justification of acts; intention

• Publisher: Silesian University in Opava, Faculty of Public Policies, Czech Republic
• Journal: Central European Papers
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 69-82

Contributors

author

Pődör Lea