---
id: "aiethics:lecture/ethics-of-avs"
type: "AI Ethics course lecture"
title: "AI Ethics: Autonomous Driving"
url: "https://aiethicscourse.org/lectures/ethics-of-avs"
authors: ["Christoph Lütge (Course Lead)"]
summary: "In this module, Professor Lütge provides an overview of key ethical considerations relating to autonomous driving. He discusses the Trolley Problem, the ethics of risk and ethical recommendations from the automotive industry."
source: "AI Ethics: Global Perspectives (aiethicscourse.org)"
licence: "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)"
---

# AI Ethics: Autonomous Driving

A lecture of the course [AI Ethics: Global Perspectives](https://aiethicscourse.org/).

## Lecturer

- Christoph Lütge (Course Lead), Director, TUM Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence (IEAI)

## About this lecture

The development and implementation of autonomous vehicles is rising fast, while the scrutiny of some ethical issues fall behind. Therefore, this course module gives an overview of key ethical considerations relating to autonomous driving. In particular, the course will elaborate on the Trolley Problem, a thought experiment that has dominated the scientific debate in the field of autonomous driving ethics in the past. It will be highlighted why a move away from this concept and towards the ethics of risks is necessary and will introduce a first approach of doing so. Furthermore, the course will summarize some ethical recommendations that were developed by expert groups for industry and policymakers in the automotive sector. Lastly, the course will sketch the current status of legal frameworks.

## Video and transcript

- Video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8nfvBVB_FM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8nfvBVB_FM)
- Transcript (PDF): [https://aiethicscourse.org/img/ac8bb68b-f565-406d-9eb1-893afc3e7001.pdf](https://aiethicscourse.org/img/ac8bb68b-f565-406d-9eb1-893afc3e7001.pdf)

## Read, watch, and listen

- [MIT’s Moral Machine](https://www.moralmachine.net/)
- [The Moral Machine experiment](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0637-6), Awad, E., Dsouza, S., Kim, R. et al. The Moral Machine experiment. Nature 563, 59–64 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0637-6
- [The ANDRE (AutoNomous DRiving Ethics) Project at TUM IEAI](https://ieai.mcts.tum.de/research/andre-autonomous-driving-ethics/)
- [German National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence](https://www.ki-strategie-deutschland.de/home.html)
- [AI4People: Ethical Guidelines for the Automotive Sector – Fundamental Requirements and Practical Recommendations](https://www.igi-global.com/article/ai4people/269438), Lütge, Christoph,et al. AI4People: Ethical Guidelines for the Automotive Sector – Fundamental Requirements and Practical Recommendations. IJT vol.12, no.1 2021: pp.101-125. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJT.20210101.oa2
- [The Global AI Ethics Consortium (GAIEC) Repository](https://ieai.mcts.tum.de/global-ai-ethics-consortium/gaiec-repository/)