The debug screen of a complex autonomous system is incomprehensible to the untrained eye. We first reviewed the scientific literature, with the aim of outlining the AV ethics debates, by identifying the ethical issues prioritised by the scientific community and the main empirical findings. The New York arm of Sisters of the Good Shepherd, which owns seven shares of Tesla common stock, offered the resolution, citing the lawsuit, concerns about cobalt supplies and questions about work conditions at Tesla factories. Companies acknowledge that AVs will face rare extreme traffic situations, often mentioned in the industry reports as edge cases, and emphasise simulation and validation methods used to test these scenarios (we test and validate our self-driving vehicles in the wide variety of environmental conditions that the vehicle might face in its operational design domain from driving scenarios the vehicle would face daily to the rare edge cases General Motors Self-Driving Safety Report (GM, Citation2018); AI-powered autonomous vehicles must be able to respond properly to the incredibly diverse situations they could experience, such as emergency vehicles, pedestrians, animals, and a virtually infinite number of other obstacles including scenarios that are too dangerous to test in the real world Nvidia Self-Driving Safety Report (Nvidia, Citation2018); decision making is one of the most challenging tasks in the A.I. Tesla has issued reports on its efforts around environmental, social and governance issues. On a call with investors, Musk called the company's performance "strong" and noted that if Tesla is to make the 500,000 vehicles it projects for 2020, it will have produced 1,000 times what it . The video is removed by YouTube for promoting harmful misinformation, and the doctors are jointly and emphatically condemn[ed] by the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. Tesla filed an objection in Germany and said that the matter should not have a material impact on Tesla's business. Telsa, known for its Ethical code, strives to "do the right thing by engaging in activities that your household will be appreciative of." Tesla is one of the businesses that directly participate in corporate social responsibility to fulfill the stakeholders' needs. Tesla defied county orders so it could restart production. And if there is a track record of exceptional achievement, then it is likely that that will continue into the future.. The overall conclusion that can be drawn from our analyses is that industry and academia look at the ethics of AV technology through rather different lenses. He suggests that one day in the not too distant future, people will give the idea of stepping into a self-driving car less thought than they do to getting in an elevator. The ethics of accident-algorithms for self-driving cars: An applied trolley problem? Got a confidential news tip? At such levels of automation, how the AV is designed to execute its tasks is more important than how the human driver ought to execute its tasks (Heikoop et al., Citation2019). The tracing condition requires the presence of at least one human agent that can understand the real capabilities of the system and bear the moral consequences of the actions of the system (Santoni de Sio & Van den Hoven, Citation2018). Their concerns about safety are shared by a half-dozen workers who spoke with The Post, some on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs. Tesla previously obtained a permit to build a vehicle assembly plant there, but not with the battery cell production facility. Tesla Inc. is a leading electric automobile manufacturer in the United States. From the State's very first shelter-in-place order, national critical infrastructure, including vehicle manufacturing like Tesla's Fremont factory, was considered vital and given permission to continue operating. Therefore, AV companies tend to prioritise these issues, for which technical solutions are presented. In this research we have provided an overview of the narratives on the ethics of AVs as presented both in scientific literature and in industry reports issued by companies with an AV testing permit in California. We recall that few companies have a driverless testing permit in California, which means that in general companies rely heavily on onsite human oversight for the testing of AVs. The field of autonomous vehicles is moving forward quickly. General Motors in November recalled Chevrolet Bolt electric cars from model years 2017 to 2019 in the United States because they could catch fire under certain conditions. No less a personage then Elon Musk has compared self-driving cars to horizontal elevators. Musk adopts the rhetoric of anti-lockdown protesters in a late-night Twitter rant, tweeting, FREE AMERICA NOW and Give people their freedom back! He also falsely describes the shelter-in-place restrictions as de facto house arrest. This research has received funding from the European Research Council: Consolidator Grant BEHAVE (grant agreement 724431). Want proof? Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Tesla is not an outlier, nor are we going against the grain. County officials say they have been working with Tesla on a safety plan to allow the factory to reopen. For years, Tesla was really the only game in town if you wanted a long-range, full size electric vehicleand as it turned out, a lot of people did. The devices turn out to be BiPap machines, which are commonly used to treat sleep apnea, rather than the much more expensive mechanical ventilators that hospitals use to intubate severely ill patients. Tesla scored poorly across the remainder of our ratings that related to human and workers rights, receiving for example a worst rating for Supply Chain Management. The CDC says that in 2020, there were 11.2 abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. Tesla resumes production at the Fremont factory in defiance of the public health order. the unexpected appearance of an animal on a highway). Tesla said in the filing Wednesday that the company "has responded to all information requests from the EPA and refutes the allegations." The underlying argument in the debates that take place in the scientific literature about the AV trolley problem can be outlined as follows: (i) AVs ought to save lives. Das Naes Unidas 14401, Torre Hotel Chcara Santo Antnio So Paulo, BR-SP. In our document review, we did not find any reference to trolley cases as described in the scientific literature, i.e. For instance, there is still little consensus about the relevance of the trolley problem in the context of AVs (Bonnefon, Shariff, & Rahwan, Citation2019; Cunneen et al., Citation2020; Himmelreich, Citation2018; Keeling, Citation2020; Wolkenstein, Citation2018). Mission Specialists are trained on the governing operational design domain, and are prepared to take manual control of the vehicle when presented with a scenario that is not included in the current operational design domain Uber Advanced Technologies Group A Principled Approach To Safety (Uber, Citation2018). (That figure excludes data from California, Maryland, New . It similarly lacked adequate toxic chemical policies for the solar panels it produces it has published no policy on this issue, even though the industrial manufacture of solar panels involves the use, release and treatment of numerous polluting and toxic substances. Musk told employees in an email at the time that the factory would remain open and that he would personally report to work, but that they could stay home if they felt uncomfortable or ill. Those complaints have been echoed in surveys about and reviews of the companys cars by J.D. Companies have stated the need for clear rules to be set in advance (It is necessary to put legal frameworks in place in order to clarify where the responsibility lies in case of the occurrence of an accident after the realisation of fully automated driving Honda Sustainability Report 2015 Honda, Citation2015), while also presenting technical solutions aimed at expediting investigations, such as the use of a black-box akin to a flight recorder designed to store accident data, or responsibility algorithms based on mathematical models (With regard to liability issues a black-box is required that stores certain data necessary to sort out accident liability which can contribute towards allocating responsibility between human and machine when accidents happen BMW Sustainable Value Report 2016 (BMW, Citation2016); What will happen when a collision occurs? Tesla acknowledged its shortcomings in the business process, and agreed to improve the quality and safety of its vehicles, the regulator said in the posting. According to this account, AVs should meet tracking and tracing conditions to allow for a meaningful form of human control (Santoni de Sio & Van den Hoven, Citation2018). Laurie Shelby, Teslas vice president for environment, health and safety, told workers in an email that there had been no workplace transmissions of the virus, though it was unknown how the exact origin of each of the cases would have been determined. Over a span of two weeks earlier this month, Tesla issued four recalls, including one for its vehicles boombox feature, which could interfere with pedestrians ability to hear warning sounds signaling that a car was approaching, and another over a feature of the companys full self-driving software that caused the cars to roll through stop sign intersections. Its all a big aggravation, said plant employee Phillips. Anyone can read what you share. It's not clear if anyone in the history of corporations has ever completely read and understood their companys manual. Tesla is defending itself in the U.S. and Germany against allegations that it has violated environmental rules and regulations, according to a new financial filing. Risk analysis of Tesla's CSR&S issues shows tha t they are both high impact and high likelih ood events, with a lawsuit recently lodged in Washingt on DC against the company for human rights abuses. https://medium.com/aimotive/ensuring-safe-self-driving-ad28cc89fa3b? Most of these articles are theoretical pieces of research, often written as argumentative or normative essays, about different perspectives and dimensions of the AV moral dilemma. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). The output generated by this algorithm is a report stating the number of occurrences of the keywords in the lexicons associated with each ethical issue in each one of the documents issued by the AV companies. Some of those older controversies arent quite buried. As private companies are highly influential on the development and acceptance of AV technologies (Van den Hoven, Vermaas, & Van de Poel, Citation2015), their stance on ethics should be taken into account for the purposes of a meaningful debate about the ethics of AVs. Californias governor, Gavin Newsom, issues a statewide shelter-in-place order. A 2021 Model 3 sedan sits in a near-empty lot at a Tesla dealership in Littleton, Colo. June 27, 2021. This argument has been undermined by some scholars who claim that increased manufacturer liability will not be problematic, as AVs will be safer and will bring down the overall cost of litigation and insurance (Garza, Citation2011). In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency accused Tesla last week of failing to prove it is in compliance with federal emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants. Elon Musk calls Tesla workers back to the factory (again). Naro was able to secure her job. While acknowledging these limitations, we believe this list is adequate for our research given that it includes a comprehensive and state-of-the-art compilation of ethical issues in the field of AI ethics. Musk tweets, If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.. He also says that local rules supersede statewide rules, if they are stricter. These interactions are challenging for AVs not only because these systems lack human intuition and flexibility but also because of the large scale fleet programming that is needed (Borenstein, Herkert, & Miller, Citation2019; Himmelreich, Citation2018). Days later, workers tested positive for the coronavirus. Different approaches to AV responsibility have been proposed in the literature (Borenstein, Herkert, & Miller, Citation2017; Coeckelbergh, Citation2016; Misselhorn, Citation2015; Nyholm, Citation2018). READ MORE: Sign up for our weekly coronavirus newsletter here, and read our latest coverage on the crisis here. Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Florida or anywhere else The Force may lead him. 1.16, has been designated as a variant under monitoring by the World Health Organization. The handbook offers a disclaimer to all employees: If youre looking for a traditional employee handbook filled with policies and rules, you wont find one. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital Tesla sues Alameda county, alleging that the county's continuing shelter-in-place order is unconstitutional. A few years ago, researchers at MITs Media Lab created an online experience they call the Moral Machine that allows people to answer such ethically loaded questions online. Five additional records were identified through other sources, such as citation chaining. The statements that we identified in the AV reports regarding human oversight relate more to the first condition of the Human Meaningful Control theory, but we also report one statement which relates to the tracing condition with respect to the understanding of the system. What has the trolley dilemma ever done for us (and what will it do in the future). Heres a handy timeline of what led up to Musks meltdown May: On the day that global confirmed cases of Covid-19 surpass 100,000, Musk declares on Twitter: The coronavirus panic is dumb. The tweet sets the tone for Musks approach toward the deadly pandemic, repeatedly downplaying the risk of the virus and opposing public health measures. Subsequently, we applied a text mining algorithm using the previously created lexicons as regular expressions in order to locate the keywords associated with each ethical issue in the 86 documents. Rude drivers will swerve in my lane: are Tesla owners paying the price for Musk hate? We refer to accountability in broad terms, thus encompassing closely related concepts, such as responsibility and liability. We also cover issues such as palm oil, soya, low carbon diets and labels. By providing the super-humanly fast runner illustration, Intel is not only emphasising that their AV will not be responsible for a collision with a pedestrian, but it is also promoting trust in their technology. Owen Diaz, who worked as a . He is convinced he has lost his position on the powertrain floor, where he installs battery packs on the Model S and X vehicles, because he cannot risk going back with the conditions hes learned about. The amazing fact is that every Tesla is actually carefully constructed to last a lifetime or 100 years (!) Teslas standoff, first with public health officials, then with its own workers, has become one of the most dramatic corporate battles taking place over the response to the global coronavirus pandemic. Six counties in the San Francisco Bay Area become the first locales in the US to order all non-essential businesses to close and require residents to shelter in place. The defendants in the suit have committed themselves to the responsible and ethical sourcing of minerals and have policies against the use of child labor. Our review showed quite clearly that the scientific literature on AV ethics is dominated by considerations about safety and cybersecurity concerning the programming of extreme traffic situations. Musk unleashes another rant during Teslas quarterly earnings call with investors, declaring public health measures fascist and demanding: Give people back their goddamn freedom.. Ethical Consumer expects all electronics companies to discuss the use of potentially hazardous chemicals like Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs), PVC and phthalates, but Tesla hasnt published policies about any of these. Guides to bike, cars, petrol and outdoor pursuits. Guides to electronic devices, broadband and phone networks. Despite the wealth of discussions about the ethics of AVs, little is known about the awareness and engagement of the industry on this matter. Permission will be required if your reuse is not covered by the terms of the License. But if Musks singular company stops being so special, if customers can just as easily get an EV from Kia or Nissan, theres no guarantee that the companys cycle of scandals wont start hitting them where it hurts: the bottom line. Quite surprisingly, little is known about the ethical issues in focus by the AV industry. Conclusion and considerations. When designing a crash collision algorithm, a manufacturer is assumed to face three options while balancing ethics and liability: (i) program an algorithm to swerve in a direction that would sacrifice fewer lives but would entail high liability due to compensatory and punitive damages for intentional conduct caused by targeting the sacrificed people; (ii) allow the AV to run its course which would entail a larger number of lives sacrificed but lower liability which would then be restricted to compensatory damages; and (iii) avoid a collision, which if successful, entails that no lives are sacrificed but if unsuccessful, entails the largest number of lives sacrificed, but in either case entails the lowest liability (Wu, Citation2019). These principles, formulated upon analyses of the moral intuitions that emerge in stylised cases, would ultimately guide the AV design process (Keeling, Citation2020; Wu, Citation2019). Tesla and Musk are an anomaly in the business world. Tesla was sued in December 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia along with Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc., Dell Technologies Inc. and Microsoft Corp. for "knowingly benefiting" from children mining at sites owned by Glencore and other mining companies, a claim Glencore has vehemently denied. And moreover, it is noted that, because we are using a list of ethical issues based on deontological guidelines as a guidance tool in this research, our results will necessarily reflect such top-down deontological approach, thus leaving out other potential relevant ethical approaches and principles related, for instance, to informed consent and risk acceptance (Menon & Alexander, Citation2020). See the latest covid numbers in the U.S. and across the world. I saw many takes on Tesla AI Day 2022 that fell into a couple of main buckets. Dog-lovers will be happy to learn that dogs were more likely to be spared than cats. We use this list of AI ethical issues to guide us in identifying the ethics within the scientific and industry narratives. 3 Waymo LLC; Tesla Motors; Nissan; BMW; Ford; Valeo North America Inc.; AutoX Technologies Inc.; Nuro Inc.; Apple Inc.; TuSimple; Aurora Innovation; Toyota Research Institute; Intel Corp; TORC Robotics Inc.; EasyMile; Ridecell; Mercedes Benz; Bosch; GM Cruise LLC; Honda; Zoox Inc.; NVIDIA Corporation; Navya Inc.; Udelv; Pony.AI; Continental Automotive Systems; Mando America Corporation; Uber Advanced Technologies Group; and AImotive Inc. 4 RSS stands for Responsibility-Sensitive Safety and NHTSA stands for National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traditionally, the ethics debates in this field have revolved around less sensational issues, such as costbenefit analysis of transport projects or fairness in pricing (Van Wee, Citation2011). Although, as we argued above, we believe that such documents hold important clues regarding the views of industry actors e.g. /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/tesla-asked-to-report-on-human-rights-amid-cobalt-deal-with-glencore-59263062 Tesla, Inc. assumes that personnel are a crucial achievement aspect in the companys locomotive and energy resolutions when establishing the corporate social responsibility approach. For example, while the scientific literature has been largely preoccupied with deep considerations of abstract moral dilemmas (trolley problem), industry reports adopt a much more pragmatic, technology-infused and perhaps overly optimistic narrative when discussing the potential of so-called edge cases where accidents cannot be avoided and loss of life and damage need to be minimised. Maarten suggests that society will tolerate a certain level of deaths and injuries attributable to autonomous cars, but I think he may be a bit optimistic in that regard. Recently, it has been proposed that the relevance of the trolley cases in the AV context is associated with the prospect of development of novel ethical principles. It should be noted, however, that humans are poor fallback systems. This condition is especially relevant to tackle the responsibility gaps, i.e. Phillips said he takes the risk into account but also needs to work to keep a steady paycheck. At the highest concern is small-scale informal or "artisanal" mining of cobalt in the DRC, a practice done by hand and known to carry the potential for child laborers. His antics were questioned by corporate ethics experts. Could companies program their cars to favor their customers when faced with perilous choices? While these debates are certainly very rich, we found this stream of the literature to be quite fragmented. Trust and business-related considerations may not be the only reasons for the prevalence of safety considerations in the AV reports. Despite our efforts to alleviate ambiguity surrounding terms such as accountability, we could not successfully remove it entirely from this research. Workers periodically sanitize equipment, particularly after breaks, but theres little enforcement and we hardly do that, the worker said. (vii) Therefore AVs should be programmed with x. Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. Tesla is an American company that deals with the manufacturing and sale of electric vehicles. Rather, our aim is to explore how the discussion of ethical issues in industry reports and its counterpart in the academic literature relate and compare to one another. Theres not much reason to think Tesla wont sail through these most recent storms like it has all the others before. Tesla has always acted as an exception to every rulein carmaking, in leadership and in its approach to controversy. That most recent racial reckoning has been just one aspect of the deepening mire of controversy in which Tesla has found itself in recent months. And Prove it. In addition to onsite oversight, companies also rely on the remote control of AV operations. Mark Newman, a senior research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC, said in a July 1 interview that a substantial reason companies have begun work on cobalt-free or cobalt-light batteries is the "somewhat shady history" of the metal and difficulty confirming the absence of ethically tainted material in the supply chain. Asked to respond to the differences observed in the responses to the Moral Machine, Di Fabio said that philosophers and lawyers often have very different understandings of ethical dilemmas than ordinary people do. Author Jacob Holzman; Theme Metals; Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the Tesla Design Studio on April 30, . Guides to help you find the most responsible companies and brands. Magazines, Digital The technical and business reports from the past five years were requested from the companies and also screened through standard online searches on their websites. The company wants everyone to work hard, love what they do and enjoy themselves. You have reached your limit of free articles. Since November, seven women have sued the company over alleged workplace sexual harassment. And finally we reflected on the theoretical propositions and main empirical findings related to the ethical issues which are the focus points of this research. The tracing condition in the Meaningful Human Control theory has another dimension, related to responsibility, which will be addressed below. Nonetheless, two Tesla workers say they received termination notices alleging a failure to return to work after they opted to take unpaid leave to protect themselves and their family members when the factory restarted production the second week of May. Car Maintenance. The Tesla CEOs anti-lockdown cause has won the support of Donald Trump. Subsequently, we focused on safety, accountability, and human oversight, and we raised critical yet practical questions, for which we looked for answers in the industry narratives. Californias phased reopening begins with some loosening of the statewide shelter-in-place order. Critics have slammed Tesla for Model 3 quality issues for years. Elon Musks talks of a Twitter takeover mask Teslas troubles in China, Twitter adopts poison pill intended to thwart Elon Musks takeover bid, In major reversal, Elon Musk wont join Twitter board, How auto regulators played mind games with Elon Musk.