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Designing Driving Automation for Human Autonomy: Self-determination, the Good Life, and Social Deliberation

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Connected and Automated Vehicles: Integrating Engineering and Ethics

Part of the book series: Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics ((SAPERE,volume 67))

Abstract

The present chapter analyses the complex ways in which driving automation affects human autonomy with the aim of raising awareness on the design and policy challenges that must be faced to effectively align future transportation systems to this ethical value. Building on the European report Ethics of Connected and Automated Vehicles, we consider three dimensions of the relation between human autonomy and driving automation: autonomy as self-determination of driving decisions; autonomy as freedom to pursue a good life through mobility; and, finally, autonomy as the capacity and opportunity to influence social deliberation concerning transportation policies and planning. In doing so, the chapter shows that delegating driving tasks to CAVs might both infringe and support user autonomy, thus calling for a reconsideration of widespread frameworks concerning the role of humans and technological systems in this domain. Moreover, it stresses the importance of promoting inclusive and participated decision-making processes on transportation policies and planning, so to avoid situations where the development and adoption of transport innovations are led by agents willing to respond only to a limited set of stakeholders’ needs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The authors do not endorse the claim that drivers should remain in control, but rather that some human actors should. Their framework however clearly explains how ethical choices about the protection of the moral agency and responsibility of different actors should be reflected in design and policy choices.

  2. 2.

    For a different opinion, see e.g. [20].

  3. 3.

    As discussed in [26], Chap. 2, it is also important to consider the extent to which data-based transportation systems may create new forms of discrimination or domination, as is already the case with many other digital, data-based services.

  4. 4.

    By the way, some of these preferences would even be openly discriminatory and their implementation in the driving system therefore just illegal in many jurisdictions (imagine, e.g., a vehicle programmed to systematically hit women or people of colour).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section Ethics/Philosophy of Technology, Delft University of Technology, TBM Building, 2628BX, Delft, The Netherlands

    Filippo Santoni de Sio

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Privata Giuseppe La Masa, 1, 20156, Milan, Italy

    Fabio Fossa

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  1. Filippo Santoni de Sio
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Correspondence to Fabio Fossa .

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Fabio Fossa

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Federico Cheli

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Santoni de Sio, F., Fossa, F. (2023). Designing Driving Automation for Human Autonomy: Self-determination, the Good Life, and Social Deliberation. In: Fossa, F., Cheli, F. (eds) Connected and Automated Vehicles: Integrating Engineering and Ethics. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, vol 67. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39991-6_2

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