Ethical Implications of Social Internet of Vehicles Systems

The core concept of Internet of Things (IoT) is to equip real world objects with computing, processing, and communicating capabilities to enable socializing between them. Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is an adherent of IoT that has realized significant advancements using communication technologies. Vehicles connected through Internet are capable of sharing information that can substantially enhance the quality of traffic on roads. Social IoT (SIoT) is an instance of IoT that deals specifically in socialization of connected objects. SIoT enables the notion of Social IoV (SIoV) where vehicles are the key entities for sharing information between themselves and the infrastructure (commonly known as road side units). Vehicles in SIoV socialize by exchanging data such as traffic congestions, weather conditions, infotainment, vacant parking slots, alternate routes, and discount coupons for restaurants. In SIoV, vehicles can communicate with other vehicles and infrastructure through traditional communication technologies like Wi-Fi, cellular networks or through dedicated short range communication, etc. SIoV will be confronted with ethical dilemmas and expected to function in an ethically responsible manner. This paper highlights the ethical implications of SIoV systems. Vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure involves autonomous decision making that requires setting ethical and moral rules before taking verdict. This paper discusses the lack of ethical guidelines in designing and deploying of SIoV systems that are of utmost importance. Finally, an addition to SIoV architecture is proposed to incorporate the ethical and moral principles for scheming the SIoV systems.