The industry is promising a glittering future of autonomous vehicles moving in harmony like schools of fish. That can’t happen, however, until carmakers answer the kinds of thorny philosophical questions explored in science fiction since Isaac Asimov wrote his robot series last century. For example, should a self-driving vehicle sacrifice its occupant by swerving off a cliff to avoid killing a school bus full of children?
Ultimately, the problem with giving a driverless vehicle the power to make consequential decisions is that, like the robots of science fiction, a self-driving car still lacks empathy and the ability to comprehend nuance.