Automated Cars—a Moral Dilemma

Self-driving cars are just around the corner. Such （A） v will make getting from one place to another safer and less stressful. But how should driverless cars handle emergencies？ People disagree on the answer. And that might put the brakes on this （1） t .

To understand the challenge， imagine a car that suddenly meets some pedestrians in the road. Even with braking， it's too late to avoid a （B） c . So the car's artificial intelligence must decide whether to swerve. To （2） s the pedestrians， should the car veer off the road or swerve into oncoming traffic？ What if such options would likely kill the car's driver？

Researchers used online （3） s to study people's attitudes about such situations with driverless cars. They ran six surveys between June and November 2015. A total of 1928 Americans shared their views. Survey participants mostly agreed that （C） a cars should be designed to protect the most people. That included swerving into walls to save a larger number of pedestrians. But there's a hitch. Those same surveyed people want to ride in cars that protect passengers at all costs.

Automated cars can revolutionize transportation， but this new technology creates a moral dilemma that could slow its acceptance. Most buyers would want their cars to be programmed to protect them in preference to other people. However， regulations might one day instruct that cars must act to protect the most people. But rules like this could drive away automated car （D） b .

Automated cars will need to respond to emergencies without being sure how its decisions will play out. For example， should a car avoid a motorcycle by swerving into a wall？ After all， the car's passenger is more likely to survive a crash than is the motorcyclist. This is a moral （4） d .

In spite of these disagreements， the potential benefits of driverless cars are obvious. If all driverless cars are programmed to protect their passengers in emergencies， （5） t accidents will decline. Those vehicles might be dangerous to pedestrians on rare occasions. But they "won't speed， won't drive drunk and won't text while driving， which would be a win for （E） s ."

（A， B， C， D， E FOR CROSS， 1， 2， 3， 4， 5 FOR DOWN. The first letters of the absents were given.）