ABSTRACT

This research involves a controversial topic in the public sphere: should automated vehicles (AVs) be programmed with selfish algorithms to protect their passengers at all costs or utilitarian algorithms to minimize social loss in crashes involving moral dilemmas? Among a growing number of studies on what AVs should do in sacrificial dilemmas from the perspective of laypeople, few have considered how laypeople respond to AVs programmed with these crash algorithms. Our survey collected participants’ deontological evaluation (i.e., evaluations of the moral righteousness of the decisions made by these AVs and of adopting these AVs), their perceived benefit and risk of these AVs, and their behavioral intention to use and willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for these AVs. The participants (N = 580) perceived greater benefits from selfish AVs and reported a greater intention to use and higher WTP a premium for selfish AVs than utilitarian AVs. Deontological evaluation and perceived risk were non-significantly different between these AVs. Overall, selfish AVs were more acceptable to our participants. Deontological evaluation, perceived benefit, and perceived risk were predictive of behavioral intention. Additionally, after controlling for them, vehicle type still exerted a direct influence on behavioral intention. Perceived benefit was the dominant predictor of WTP a premium. Remarkably, participants expressed an insufficient intention to adopt both AVs, probably indicating that in regards to AV deployment, non-positive public attitudes toward AVs are more pressing than the challenge of deciding upon their ethical behaviors in rare moral dilemmas.

摘要

这项研究涉及公共领域的一个有争议的话题：是否应该使用自私的算法对自动驾驶汽车进行编程，以不惜一切代价保护乘客，还是采用功利主义的算法，将涉及道德困境的碰撞中的社会损失降至最低？从外行者的角度来看，越来越多的关于AV在牺牲困境中应该做什么的研究中，很少有人考虑过外行人如何响应使用这些崩溃算法编程的AV。我们的调查收集了参与者的道义评估（即，对这些AV做出的决定以及采用这些AV的道德正义的评估），他们对这些AV的感知收益和风险以及他们的使用行为意愿和支付意愿（WTP） ）这些AV的溢价。参加者（N= 580）认为自私的AV比功利的AV具有更大的使用意愿，并且自私的AV的使用意愿更高，WTP更高。这些AV之间的道义评估和感知风险没有显着差异。总体而言，自私的AV更适合我们的参与者。道义评估，感知收益和感知风险可预测行为意图。另外，在控制了他们之后，车辆类型仍然对行为意图产生直接影响。感知收益是WTP溢价的主要预测因子。值得注意的是，与会人员表示没有足够的意愿同时采用这两种AV，这可能表明在部署AV方面，