World News: What Happens When Autonomous Vehicles Are Safer Than Humans?

Will you keep driving when autonomous vehicles are safer than humans?

“For every story about advancements in artificial intelligence technology in the driverless cars business, there are concerning headlines about recalls and accidents with autonomous vehicles. Still, we appear to be approaching a time when self-driving systems will be safer than having humans behind the wheel.

How will you handle such an inflection point?

As part of a series on the everyday ethical dilemmas posed by AI, we asked Wall Street Journal readers the following questions:

If AI systems become appreciably better at driving cars than humans are, would it be unethical for people to drive on their own, since this increases the risk of an accident and could cost tens of thousands of lives a year? What if AI was only somewhat better, but in the aggregate would still save thousands of lives a year?

Here are some of the thoughts they shared.

AI can’t account for human behavior

“In the aggregate” seems to be the justification. Will that be a comfort when the system fails and runs into a school bus filled with children? AI may be better than some drivers, perhaps the elderly and impaired, or the very juvenile. But it cannot make the judgment that the guy in the next lane who is blaring music and revving his engine is probably going to jump the green light aggressively, even if you hear a siren in the distance. Driving isn’t just assessing the movement of boxes, but the expected behaviors of their drivers.

Dorothy McGarrah, Woodland Hills, Calif.

It is simple math

Self-driving cars should be approved for mass use the second it can be shown that the probability of crashing is equal to or less than a human. That was yesterday, in my opinion.

Once AI’s safety advantage is proven, if you can find an insurer for your self-driven Porsche, have at it.