Germany’s guidelines for self-driving cars put emphasis on saving lives

Software in self-driving cars must be programmed to avoid injury or death of people, says guideline

The federal regulators in Germany are working on self-driving car guidelines to address ethical issues that could arise when such vehicle face some dilemma, such as choosing between hitting a cyclist or speeding up beyond the legal permit to avoid accidents, Reuters reported on 23 August. According to the guidelines, published earlier this week by an ethics committee on automated driving, the software that controls such vehicles must be programmed to avoid injury or death of people at all costs. This implies that in the event of an unavoidable accident, the software must choose whichever action will hurt the people least, even if it leads to damage to property or hitting animal on the roads.