[SOLUTION] Ethical Issues in Hybrid and Autonomous Vehicles
CpE 481 Assignment Due: February 26Ethical Issues in Hybrid and Autonomous VehiclesFor this assignment, you will select a topic associated with hyrbrid autonomous vehicles and ethics andwrite a brief (3-4 page) report.Some possible topics might include: Design of Driving Algorithm for Emergency Situations. As drivers, all of us hope a situation likethis never arises. What if apedestrian walks directly in front of our vehicle? Hitting apedestrian likely has severe consequences but alternatives might put ourselves and passengersat risk of great bodily injury. Such choices are weighty when they fall on individual humans, butwhat are the ethical dilemmas at arise when we are designing an algorithm that controls thevehicle and makes choices for such situations? What are our responsibilities as an engineer? Tradeoff of energy efficiency versus safety. A hybrid vehicle offers many possibilities forimproving fuel consumption efficiency which benefits both the individual user and society ingeneral. However, some of methods for fuel efficiency may involve safety considerations. Forexample, allowing a vehicle that is slowing to a stop to come closer to the lead vehicle in frontmay allow for more gradual deceleration and greater fuel efficiency, but also may allow smallersafety margin. How should such tradeoffs be resolved? Privacy of individual movement data. V2X communications will inherently collect a great dealof user-specific information on an individuals movements. What information should be usedand for what purposes? It seems reasonable to use metadata to devise more efficient trafficrouting which speeds overall throughput? But what if you have the choice between optimizingoverall traffic throughput vs. an individuals time to their destination? Should information beused to steer an individual on a route where past history indicates they have favoredrestaurants and stores? Should user preferences be shared with third party marketers? Optimal design of autonomous systems for safety versus efficiency tradeoffs. Is safety theoverriding concern in design of autonomous vehicle safety or do other factors like economy andfuel efficiency play a role also? Adding more sensors might make a vehicle system safer butalso might push the vehicle price past what is affordable by most potential users. Allowingshorter spacing between vehicles may improve fuel efficiency in some instances, but might alsoslightly elevate safety risks? What tradeoffs are ethical and in keeping with our responsabilitiesas engineers?These are just a few of the possible topics. You may pick one of these, or another one of your choosing.Dr. Woerner is available to help advise you on your choice of topic. Full credit will be given for papersthat relate the problem to the EcoCAR project.Your paper should: Clearly state the ethical problem or dilemma consider. Cite the relevant sections of one or more professional Codes of Ethics (e.g., IEEE, ACM, SAE,NSPE) and apply the guidance from these codes to the problem considered. Cite one or more outside references (books, journal, magazine or conference papers) whichconsider the problem and discuss the information learned. Present a clear analysis of the tradeoffs involved in the ethical problem, considering all points ofview. Propose a solution to the problem presented, and justify your solution with support from ethicalcodes, your research and reasoning.The paper should be written in complete sentences using proper grammar. References should be clearlycited, and directly quoted material should be clearly identified by quotes or indentation.We will provide the Turnitin tool on eCampus for this assignment. The Turnitin settings allow you to runan analysis of your own paper, and if necessary, resubmit the paper after corrections.
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