Ethical decision-making responsibility in Canadian autonomous vehicle policies

Abstract

The development and deployment of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) brings on a shift in moral agency from human drivers to the vehicle. This also necessarily results in the need for a shift in the hierarchy and reactivity of policymaking. It also introduces ethical questions that demand answers lest vehicles are deployed that in the operations fundamentally go against Canadian rights and freedoms. This paper first argues that AVs will act as moral agents that require an embedded ethical framework from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and developers. Then, after reviewing current Canadian policies and papers regarding AV technology, and how various ethical concepts including bias, justice and equity are discussed within them, recommendations are made to assure that the vehicles can be deployed ethically, without introducing biases and pre-mediated ethical decisions that go against values integral to our society.