Summary Of Here's A Terrible Idea By Patrick Lin

The article “Here’s A Terrible Idea: Robot Cars With Adjustable Ethics Settings” by Patrick Lin, immediately grabbed my attention because it placed the theory of ethics into the 21st century. The infamous “trolley problem” is the prime example that Lin uses to discuss the moral dilemma presented by robotic cars. After reading and discussing Lin’s article, I agree that robotic cars with adjustable ethics settings are a terrible idea.
One of the first topics that stood out to me was that 12% of people would want the manufacturer to predetermine the ethical standard programmed into their vehicle. Do these people realize the gravity of making a decision on an ethical standard and therefore don’t want to be held accountable? Perhaps their educational knowledge on the ethical standard is too minimal for them to make a clear decision. For the people that wanted to set their own ethical standard, they have to understand the entire scope of implications given different circumstances because they have to make sure they will be able to live with their decisions.
If a decision on an ethical standard is made, people have a tendency of making an exception for themselves in certain circumstances. How quickly could one change the setting on the car? Let’s look at the “trolley problem” where the dilemma is to hit five people or one. Say the current ethical setting will result in hitting the one person in order to save the five and the driver evaluates the situation and realizes that they know the person that is by himself/herself. Would the driver have time to change the ethical setting to one where the result would be hitting the five strangers as opposed to hitting the one person they