Self-Driving Car Acceptance and the Role of Ethics

Mass availability of self-driving cars is ante portas and independent of their sophistication, unavoidable fatal accidents will occur where the car will have to take life and death decisions. However, there is a knowledge gap, since the impact, that the ethical frameworks (used in the car's decision-making process) have on the overall acceptance of self-driving cars, is not well investigated. This paper addresses the key question: In the scope of unavoidable accidents, what is the effect of different ethical frameworks governing self-driving car decision-making, on their acceptance? This quantitative positivist research investigates the link of selected ethical frameworks, i.e., utilitarianism, deontology, relativism, absolutism (monism), and pluralism, to the acceptance of self-driving cars. It is hypothesized that they have an impact on the acceptance of the self-driving cars, and a model linking them to it is proposed and assessed. All five selected ethical frameworks investigated are found to have an effect on self-driving car acceptance, which implies actions for several involved stakeholders as these may be a deciding factor for the success or failure of the self-driving car market introduction.