Automated cars and ethics (Ethics in a self-driving car: whom should they save in an accident?)

Why in the discussion ?

Recently WWF (World Wildlife Fund) has released its Living Planet Report 2018 . This report discusses the terrible effects of human activities on wildlife as well as impacts on forests, extinction of species, narrowing of boundaries and impacts on the sea. It has been disclosed in the report that after 1970 , 60 percent of wildlife population and 87 percent reduction in wetlands by human activities .

• This report also discussed the distribution of species, the risk of extinction and the three other indicators measuring changes in the community structure. These three standard demonstrate serious degradation or change.

 Living Planet Index

• The Living Planet Index ( LPI) is an indicator of global biological diversity on the basis of trends in vertebrate populations of species from all over the world.
• First of all, it was published in the year 1998. This report is published twice a year.
• The target of 2011-2020 by the Convention of Biological Diversity-CBD has been adopted as an indicator of progress towards 'effective and prompt action to stop the loss of biodiversity'.

Main point of report

• In this version of the report, the section of soil biodiversity is new. According to the report, there is a serious threat to global soil biodiversity. The disappearance of wetlands is a matter of serious concern for India.
• This report also lists the depletion or decrease of natural habitat, excessive exploitation of resources, climate change, pollution and threats from aggressive species.

Lack of population ( 1970-2014)

• The main reason for the decline in biodiversity is the overgrowth of arable land conversion.
• Decrease in the number of vertebrate animals by 60 percent.
• 80% decline in the freshwater population.
• 90% of wildlife damage in Latin America

Extinct species

• From 1970 to 2014, the average population of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles has decreased by 60%, and in this period, the population of freshwater species has decreased by 83%.
• Since the 1960s, the global ecological footprint has increased by more than 190%.
• There has been a decrease of 87% in the range of wetlands since 1970 on the global level.

Shrinking forest area

• The main cause of deforestation in the forest area is the consumption of forest resources by humans. Due to increasing demand of energy, land and water, indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources continues. Consumption indicators such as Ecological Footprint present a picture of this overall resource consumption, which is a proof that the extent to which the environment has been damaged.
• In the last five decades, about 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest (the world's largest rainforest) has become extinct. Tropical deforestation is also continuously continuing, mainly due to soybean, palm trees and cattle grazing, their use is increasing day by day.
• At the global level, between 2000 and 2014, between 920,000 square kilometers of forest area was destroyed worldwide, which was almost the same area as Pakistan or France and Germany's size.

Emaciated ocean

• The level of plastic pollution is increasing in all major marine environments around the world, evidence of presence of oceans, surface water and deep marine parts of the world, in which the world's deepest sea trench Mariana Trench ) also includes.
• Residential areas of fresh water such as lakes, rivers and wetlands are most at risk. All these residential areas are also influenced by other species such as conversion, fragmentation and destruction, including attacks of foreign species, pollution, diseases and climate change.
• The most damaged coral reef is reached due to climate change and pollution.
• The number of coastal mangrove forests, which help in avoiding intense sea storms, has decreased by more than half in the last 50 years.

Forward path

• Two key global policy processes, as per the year 2020, the implementation of the sustainable Development Goals, the ray of hope is seen by the implementation of sustainable development goals. Probably due to these two changes, there are some changes in this scenario, and these figures prove to be helpful in presenting evidence in support of life.
• Other important global issues, such as each interconnected entity in relation to climate change, whether it be a government or business or finance, research, civil society and individual, must make the necessary effort at their own level so that they are accurate and in the direction of environmental protection. Effective steps can be taken.

Recently, a study was published in Nature Magazine in respect of self-powered vehicles, in which some questions were raised on the criterion of ethics regarding self-powered vehicles.

Case study

• The conditions of two auto-operated cars were displayed in the study, in the first situation, the self-operated car on the two-lane highway as a self-operated car has been visualized that the vehicle breaks suddenly and if this vehicle fails at the same speed If it continues, then two men crossing the road and as soon as they get out of the same vehicle lane, it will kill some dogs.
• At the same time, in another situation it is reported that an auto powered vehicle is taking a man, a woman, a child and a dog.
• A pregnant woman, an elderly woman, a robber, a girl and a poor person are crossing the road ahead of this vehicle and breaks the brakes, in such a situation if the vehicle chooses to move back, then it is a barricades Crashing will occur, which will probably cost the passengers to the passengers.
• So the question now is, who should choose the option to save the vehicle in both situations?

result

• On average, respondents from all countries chose human life rather than animals and were given preference to save the lives of a large number of youth.
• At the same time, there was considerable disagreement among the respondents from different countries on other aspects.
• This case study suggested that it would be difficult to create a 'universal moral code' in such a situation.
• Indian participants of this study have expressed their views in a big way to save the elderly and women instead of pedestrians.
• However, we can prepare programs to operate automatically operated cars more morally than humans, beyond all psychological boundaries.