MIT’s moral machine project is a psychological roadblock to self-driving cars

In the moral machine project, participants are asked to form judgments about the well-known trolley example. The project is intended to serve as a starting point for public discussion that would eventually lead to a solution to the social dilemma of autonomous vehicles. The dilemma is that autonomous vehicles should be programed to maximize the number of lives saved in trolley-style dilemmas. But consumers will only purchase autonomous vehicles that are programed to favor passenger safety in such dilemmas. We argue that the project is seriously misguided. There are relevant variants of trolley to which the project’s participants are not exposed. These variants make clear that the morally correct way to program autonomous vehicles is not at odds with what consumers will purchase. The project is hugely popular and dominates public discussion of this issue. We show that, ironically, the project itself is largely responsible for the dilemma.