A new working paper co-authored by Prof. Chris Knittel shows that millennials are still interested in owning cars rather than renting or sharing. “Not only are millennials as inclined to own cars as previous generations were, but also they drive their cars more than baby boomers did at the same stage of life,” writes Leonid Bershidsky for Bloomberg.
Axios reporter Joann Muller writes about MIT startup WaveSense, which has developed a ground-penetrating radar that creates maps to help vehicles through snow, fog and ice. WaveSense “essentially creates a fingerprint of the roadways by mapping and tracking unique geologic patterns underground,” Muller explains.
New Yorker contributor Caroline Lester writes about the Moral Machine, an online platform developed by MIT researchers to crowdsource public opinion on the ethical issues posed by autonomous vehicles.
Fast Company reporter Jeremy Deaton highlights Prof. Jessika Trancik’s research showing that electric vehicles are often cheaper than comparable gas-powered vehicles. “The reason is that the lower fuel costs of EVs relative to gasoline-fueled cars compensate for the higher vehicle costs of EVs,” Trancik explains.
Writing for The Washington Post, research scientist Ashley Nunes examines GM’s announcement that it will eliminate thousands of jobs and halt production at several plants in North America. Nunes writes that, “Given the hurdles, political and otherwise, facing electric and autonomous vehicles, some may question the wisdom of GM’s recent announcement.”
Prof. John Sterman speaks with Marco Werman of PRI’s The World about the future of the American car market. According to Sterman, “the U.S. still has the opportunity, if the federal policies were aligned with our long-term interests, to have a major role in the new car and transportation and mobility industry that’s taking shape.”
Katharine Schwab of Fast Company writes about the Media Lab’s Moral Machine project, which surveyed people about their feelings on the ethical dilemmas posed by driverless vehicles. Because the results vary based on region and economic inequality, the researchers believe “self-driving car makers and politicians will need to take all of these variations into account when formulating decision-making systems and building regulations,” Schwab notes.
Lucas Laursen writes for Fortune that a global survey created by MIT researchers uncovered different regional attitudes about how autonomous vehicles should handle unavoidable collisions. Global carmakers, Laursen writes, “will need to use the findings at the very least to adapt how they sell their increasingly autonomous cars, if not how the cars actually operate.”
MIT researchers created an online game to determine how people around the world think autonomous vehicles should handle moral dilemmas, reports Laurel Wamsley for NPR. “Before we allow our cars to make ethical decisions, we need to have a global conversation to express our preferences to the companies that will design moral algorithms,” the researchers explain, “and to the policymakers that will regulate them.”
BBC News reporter Chris Fox writes that MIT researchers surveyed people about how an autonomous vehicle should operate when presented with different ethical dilemmas. Fox explains that the researchers hope their findings will “spark a ‘global conversation’ about the moral decisions self-driving vehicles will have to make.”
The results of the Media Lab’s “Moral Machine” survey provides a glimpse into how people will respond to the ethical dilemmas surrounding autonomous vehicle accidents. “The point here, the researchers say, is to initiate a conversation about ethics in technology, and to guide those who will eventually make the big decisions about AV morality,” writes Wired’s Aarian Marshall.
Using an online platform known as the “Moral Machine,” researchers at the Media Lab have surveyed more than two million people from 233 countries about how an autonomous vehicle should respond in a crash. “The Moral Machine game is similar to the infamous trolley problem,” writes Tracey Lindeman for Motherboard, “but calibrated for the autonomous car.”
A new study from Media Lab researchers highlights the result of an online survey that asked volunteers how a self-driving vehicle should respond to a variety of potential accidents. “Moral responses to unavoidable damage vary greatly around the world in a way that poses a big challenge for companies planning to build driverless cars,” writes Alex Hern in The Guardian.
Carolyn Johnson writes for The Washington Post about a new MIT study “that asked people how a self-driving car should respond when faced with a variety of extreme trade-offs.” According to Prof. Iyad Rahwan, “regulating AI will be different from traditional products, because the machines will have autonomy and the ability to adapt,” explains Johnson.
MIT researchers used an online platform known as the “Moral Machine” to gauge how humans respond to ethical decisions made by artificial intelligence, reports Jamie Leventhal for PBS NewsHour. According to postdoc Edmond Awad, two goals of the platform were to foster discussion and “quantitatively [measure] people’s cultural preferences.”