The DOI matches its Crossref record; 15 of the 15 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Away from Trolley Problems and Toward Risk Management
Open accessAbstract
As automated vehicles receive more attention from the media, there has been an equivalent increase in the coverage of the ethical choices a vehicle may be forced to make in certain crash situations with no clear safe outcome. Much of this coverage has focused on a philosophical thought experiment known as the “trolley problem,” and substituting an automated vehicle for the trolley and the car’s software for the bystander. While this is a stark and straightforward example of ethical decision making for an automated vehicle, it risks marginalizing the entire field if it is to become the only ethical problem in the public’s mind. In this chapter, I discuss the shortcomings of the trolley problem, and introduce more nuanced examples that involve crash risk and uncertainty. Risk management is introduced as an alternative approach, and its ethical dimensions are discussed.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“This corresponds to a risk management situation by all means, with a number of nuances and inherent complexity (Goodall, 2016).”
From Ethical principles in machine learning and artificial intelligence: cases from the field and possible ways forward (2020) · cites this paper as Goodall, 2016
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles
Bonnefon, J.-F., Shariff, A., & Rahwan, I. (2016) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aaf2654 · Cited by 1,527
Thomson, J. J. (1985) · The Yale Law Journal · doi:10.2307/796133 · Cited by 1,315
Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions
Persad, G., Wertheimer, A., & Emanuel, E. J. (2009) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(09)60137-9 · Cited by 929
Pushing moral buttons: The interaction between personal force and intention in moral judgment
Greene, J. D., Cushman, F. A., Stewart, L. E., Kelly Lowenberg, C., Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2009) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2009.02.001 · Cited by 677
Driver injury severity: an application of ordered probit models
Kockelman, K. M., & Kweon, Y. (2002) · Accident Analysis & Prevention · doi:10.1016/s0001-4575(01)00028-8 · Cited by 613
Predicting the severity of motor vehicle accident injuries using models of ordered multiple choice
O’Donnell, C. J., & Connor, D. H. (1996) · Accident Analysis & Prevention · doi:10.1016/s0001-4575(96)00050-4 · Cited by 367
Ethical Decision Making during Automated Vehicle Crashes
Goodall, N. J. (2014) · Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board · doi:10.3141/2424-07 · Cited by 292
Self-citationThomson, J. J. (2008) · Philosophy & Public Affairs · doi:10.1111/j.1088-4963.2008.00144.x · Cited by 218
Why Ethics Matters for Autonomous Cars
Lin, P. (2015) · Autonomes Fahren · doi:10.1007/978-3-662-45854-9_4 · Cited by 189
Implementable Ethics for Autonomous Vehicles
Gerdes, J. C., & Thornton, S. M. (2015) · Autonomes Fahren · doi:10.1007/978-3-662-45854-9_5 · Cited by 127
On the Ethical Justification for the Use of Risk Acceptance Criteria
Aven, T. (2007) · Risk Analysis · doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.2007.00883.x · Cited by 50
Ethics and radiation protection
Hansson, O. (2007) · Journal of Radiological Protection · doi:10.1088/0952-4746/27/2/002 · Cited by 47
The Crash Compatibility of Cars and Light Trucks
Gabler, H. C., & Hollowell, W. T. (2000) · Journal of Crash Prevention and Injury Control · doi:10.1080/10286580008902550 · Cited by 39
Death in Traffic: Why Are the Ethical Issues Ignored?
Evans, L. (2008) · Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology · doi:10.2202/1941-6008.1014 · Cited by 21
Rules of conduct for autonomous vehicles
Terken, J. M. B. (2016) · Engineering & Technology Reference · doi:10.1049/etr.2015.0089 · Cited by 2
Research works printed but not linked: 10
- Asimov I., 1942, Astounding Science Fiction
- Blincoe L. J., 2015, The economic and societal impact of motor vehicle crashes, 2010 (Revised)
- Foot P., 1967, Oxford Review, 5, 5
- Hansson S. O., 2007, Risk: Philosophical perspectives
- Hansson S. O., 2014, The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy
- Hansson S. O., 2015, Guidance on treatment of the economic value of a statistical life (VSL) in U.S. Department of Transportation analyses - 2015 adjustment
- McFarland M., 2015, The Washington Post, December 1
- Sandberg A., 2013, Proceedings of the International Conference Beyond AI. Pilsen
- 10.1111/j.1088-4963.2008.00144.x · DOI
- USDOT, 2015, The value of travel time savings: Departmental guidance for conducting economic evaluations, Revision 2 (2015 Update)
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Canhoto, A. I., & Clear, F. (2019) · Business Horizons · doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2019.11.003 · Cited by 446
Lo Piano, S. (2020) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-020-0501-9 · Cited by 229
“This corresponds to a risk management situation by all means, with a number of nuances and inherent complexity (Goodall, 2016).”
BackgroundCanhoto, A. I. (2020) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.10.012 · Cited by 214
Never Mind the Trolley: The Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles in Mundane Situations
Himmelreich, J. (2018) · Ethical Theory and Moral Practice · doi:10.1007/s10677-018-9896-4 · Cited by 170
The Moral Psychology of Artificial Intelligence
Bonnefon, J.-F., Rahwan, I., & Shariff, A. (2024) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-030123-113559 · Cited by 151
Metadata
- Authors
- Goodall, N. J.
- Affiliations
- Virginia Transportation Research Council (US)
- Corresponding author
- Goodall, Noah J.
- Venue
- Applied Artificial Intelligence
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2016-09-13
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 810-821
- ISSN
- 0883-9514 (ISSN-L)
- 1087-6545
- OpenAlex
- W2557292748
- Cited by
- 124
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 21.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Applied Artificial Intelligence (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
- Funders
- Virginia Department of Transportation (00107)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Autonomous Vehicle Technology and Safety
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical Ethics and Theory
- Keywords
- trolley problem, autonomous vehicles, ethical decision-making, crash risk, risk management, uncertainty, ethical dilemmas
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
