无人驾驶汽车：谁为事故买单

[导读]这篇文章所描述的这个两难选择的困境，是一个有名的书斋问题“电车难题”。我曾经也为这个问题困扰过，后来终于发现这只是一个“书呆子问题”。

可以从这篇新闻报道中知道的是，世界上不同文化，不同制度下的人对此的回答都是不一样的，我们能够期待一辆无人驾驶汽车给出一个固定的选择吗？

其实，让我疑惑顿开的是来自实际领域工程师的答案，就是这种情况很少见，而且无人车会很快做出选择，避免陷入这个两难境地。确实，我没有听我周围开车的朋友谈论过这种两难的困境。如果出现了，我也相信无人车高性能的处理能力要胜过人类，它会找到解决办法的。

从文中也可以知道，这篇新闻基于的那项科学研究是在考察不同区域，不同文化，不同制度下的人对这个两难问题的不同回答，而不是为了挑战无人驾驶技术。

在课堂上，我对同学说，如果你们毕业了（或现在）就慌忙考驾照，不是明智的；如果有谁还考虑开个驾校，是愚蠢的。无人驾驶的到来将会极大的减少交通事故的发生率，提高汽车内的时间利用率。

为无人驾驶汽车的到来鼓掌！

Driverless cars: Who should die in a crash?

By Chris FoxBBC 26 Oct 2018

[What is it?] If forced to choose, who should a self-driving car kill in an unavoidable crash? Should the passengers in the vehicle be sacrificed to save pedestrians? Or should a pedestrian be killed to save a family of four in the vehicle?

【请注意，在这儿说的是如果前提已定，必须要做选择去杀死一个人：是乘客还是行人？但我们知道生活中这种道德选择的机会是很少见的。】

[How did the experiment work?]Weighing up whom a self-driving car should kill is a modern twist on an old ethical dilemma known as the trolley problem.The idea was explored in an episode of the NBC series The Good Place, in which ethics professor Chidi is put in control of a runaway tram.If he takes no action, the tram will run over five engineers working on the tracks ahead.If he diverts the tram on to a different track he will save the five engineers, but the tram will hit one other engineer who would otherwise have survived.

【这个拖车问题是哲学上的正在研究的一个问题，“电车难题”。】

[What did they find?]The results from 40 million decisions suggested people preferred to save humans rather than animals, spare as many lives as possible, and tended to save young over elderly people.About 490,000 people also completed a demographic survey including their age, gender and religious views. The researchers said these qualities did not have a "sizeable impact" on the decisions people made.

【这是一个大规模的调查（网上调查？），不知实际生活中他们是否会这样做（也许根本没有这样的机会）。调查发现了一些共同的趋势，也许可以称为“人性“。】

【不同制度，不同文化下的人，对这个问题的回答也存在差别。从第二副图中更可以清晰的看到东方和西方对待同一个问题的差别。“East is East and West is West(and never the twain shall meet).”】

[The engineers’view points] If we do ever get to the point where a car really can drive fully autonomously, it will be able to make better split second decisions, based on far more information, and with more precision, than the best human driver ever could.

【很喜欢这个观点。实际生活中很少出现“电车难题”中这种非黑即白的场景，所以这个所谓的难题也只是书斋中的难题。】