Johannes Himmelreich

Communications of the ACM 63(1), 33–35, 2020

Abstract

The ongoing debate on the ethics of self-driving cars typically focuses on two approaches to answering such questions: moral philosophy and social science. This article argues that these two approaches are both lacking. Neither deducing answers from individual moral theories nor expecting social science to give complete answers suffices. To supplement these approaches, political philosophy is needed. The issues at stake are collective decisions made together rather than individual decisions made in light of what individuals each have reason to value. Political philosophy adds three basic concerns to the conceptual toolkit: reasonable pluralism, human agency, and legitimacy. These three concerns have so far been largely overlooked in the debate on the ethics of self-driving cars.