(Eltham) (Lab): On
the moral issues that are raised by algorithms that control these
vehicles at a time when there is an accident, a scenario I used
earlier on was that of a child stepping out in front of an
automated vehicle, and to the left there is oncoming traffic and
to the right there are pedestrians on the pavement. How do you
legislate what you require of the vehicle in those circumstances?
Quentin Willson (Journalist and TV presenter): I
do not think that Artificial Intelligence will ever be trained to
be able to make those moral decisions, and when we take a driving
test we are not trained to make them either, so it is a difficult
area to think we can resolve. Can we ever expect Artificial
Intelligence in an automated car to make that split-second moral
decision between the child in the pushchair or the old people in
the Nissan Micra? I do not think we can. We are not trained to do
that and we cannot. It is a split-second thing that happens and
legislating for it would be enormously difficult.
: So what will happen?
Quentin Willson: I am not an expert on
Artificial Intelligence in cars at the moment, but it will be,
depending on the sensors, the object that has the least
resistance.
The Minister for Transport Legislation and Maritime
(Mr John Hayes): ...We have to do all that in
simulations, so the money is invested in creating a simulated
world that may be like the whole of London, photo-accurate for
example, and it may be that we create generative models that
allow us to create every angle of a road—instead of 43 degrees,
it is 44, 45 or 46. Instead of five objects, there are six;
instead of a certain kind of road markings, they are slightly
different. We can basically generate all that in simulations, so
we can drive potentially billions of miles in simulation ahead of
that software actually going in a vehicle and being sent out on
the road. That is the way we can really assure the safety of
those vehicles—a heavy investment in simulation. It turns out
that the UK is good at that. The UK is good
at Artificial Intelligence, gaming and
simulation, so we are in a good position to do that...
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