"Trolleyology" and autonomous vehicles - moral and legal questions on the application of the doctrine of double effect

Abstract

The paper focuses on a classical problem of ethics and law: the doctrine of double effect (DDE). Nowadays the doctrine is more and more popular since AI-technology and superintelligent machines have been developing rapidly. Maybe autonomous vehicles’ most difficult dilemma is the following scenario: an autonomous car gets into an extreme road accident (collision) and the software should “decide” which direction-alternative to choose, but all of those possibilities end with death of human(s). This is a problem which requires a morally and legally justified answer. The principle emphasizes how to achieve a moral justification, what can be the classical cases of DDE and how to solve the most famous classical case, the trolley problem – which can be analogous to autonomous cars’ collisioncase. The paper also higlights whether the doctrine is relevant from the perspective of legal justification and legal solutions, too.