We have the capability right now to make cars that enforce speed limits on their drivers.
We do, in fact, make cars with audible / visible / tactile alerts when the driver exceeds the speed limit for the road they are on, but we seem to have no appetite for buying cars that take the final step to actually automatically brake, never mind requiring all cars to do this.
I take this as a very strong indication that overriding driver preferences as in 1-3 will not happen any time soon.
Re:A Study on Driverless-Car Ethics
by maxerickson on Wednesday January 30, 2019 @10:26PM
(#19042045)
Vehicles with telematics are anyway broadcasting their location. Pretty much all recent vehicles have telematics.
Most restriction orders aren't worded in a way that could easily be encoded beforehand; they could include language restricting autonomous vehicles...
For the emergency situation, if there is a button, it could just interact with the traffic control systems. If there's no traffic at the light, the light could let the car through.
1. If the car sees a police car flash it's lights for it to pull over, should it pull over unconditionally - not allowing the driver to over-ride?
2. If there is an Amber alert broadcast specifying the car, should it automatically try to alert the authorities as to it's location and/or flag down the nearest police vehicle?
3. Should a car be able to be programmed to automatically avoid going to places that would violate a restriction order on its owner or occupant.
4. If owner/occupant experiences an emergency (heart attack, impending child birth, etc), should the car have a button that will allow it to break traffic laws to try to get to the hospital faster. For example, at 2 AM on a deserted street, do you really need to wait the full time the light is red if you can see that there are no other vehicles?