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Autonomous Vehicle Ethics

Autonomous Vehicle Ethics

Beyond the Trolley Problem

The Karel Čapek Center for Values in Science and Technology (Prague, Czech Republic), the Department of Philosophy of the University of Haifa (Israel), and Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group at the California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo, CA) are pleased to announce the opening of the call for papers for presentation at a workshop on the ethics of autonomous cars.

The event will be held on June 27-28, 2019 at the Villa Lanna, Prague, Czech Republic.

Most of the work in the ethics of autonomous vehicles has so far concentrated on the variety of Trolley problems that arise in this area. However, it is time to move beyond these issues. We are inviting papers from social scientists, engineers, as well as philosophers that would explore, among others, the following issues:

- how the algorithms in autonomous vehicles might embed ethical assumptions in cases other than crash scenarios;

- how autonomous vehicles might interact with human drivers in mixed or “hybrid” traffic environments;

- how autonomous vehicles might reshape our cities and landscapes;

- what unique security or privacy concerns are raised by autonomous vehicles;

- whether long times spend in autonomous vehicles might lead to new kinds of alienation or loneliness;

- how the benefits and burdens of this new technology will be distributed throughout society.

Program committee members include:

  • Dr. David Cerny, The Institute of State and Law, the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
  • Dr. Tomas Hribek, Institute of Philosophy, the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
  • Dr. Daniel Novotný, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
  • Others to be announced

Scientific Committee members include:

  • Prof. Patrick Lin, California State University, San Luis Obispo
  • Prof. Jiří Wiedermann, Institute of Computer Science, the Czech Academy of Sciences
  • Prof. Colin Allen, University of Pittsburgh
  • Dr. Ján Matejka, Institute of State and Law, Czech the Academy of Sciences
  • Others to be announced

Please send your abstracts (max. 1000 words) as a PDF file by December 31, 2018 to david.cerny@ilaw.cas.cz. You will be notifed of acceptance by February 1, 2019. You can also direct your inquiries concerning the conference at hribek@flu.cas.cz.