Proceedings of ICLT 2023

MORAL DILEMMA FACING AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES: INSIGHTS FROM STATED PREFERENCE SURVEY IN THE CONTEXT OF SINGAPORE

Siying Zhu; Shen Loong Walt Tay; Cheng-Hsien Hsieh

School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore; School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore; School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore

International Conference on Logistics & Transport 2023, Helsinki, Finland, pp. 172-180

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Abstract

Purpose: With the rapid development of autonomous vehicles, the transportation industry is experiencing significant changes in recent years. Level 5 autonomous vehicles possess the highest level of vehicle automation, where drivers’ intervention is no longer needed. Nevertheless, the moral dilemma arises accordingly as the autonomous vehicle needs to control and regulate its own driving pattern and make the optimal decision when it is involved in any traffic accident. This preliminary study explores the perception of moral issues from potential autonomous vehicle users and how the perception affects the design of autonomous vehicles facing moral dilemmas. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, we conduct a stated preference survey to explore the preferences of prospective users regarding different decision-making models in the context of Singapore when they are presented with moral dilemma situations involving Level 5 autonomous vehicles, where descriptive analysis and discriminant analysis are utilised to analyse the survey results. Findings: Analytical results indicate that different levels of expectations for autonomous vehicles lead to stronger beliefs in the artificial intelligence (A.I.) algorithms handling moral dilemmas. However, gender and respondents’ hazard perception do not significantly influence the attitudes of respondents towards the development of decision-making models for autonomous vehicles. The results also show that rebates in insurance premiums and legal liability were effective in engendering a change in respondents’ preferences towards a moral model developed by A.I. as the autonomous vehicle decision-making model. Moreover, two groups regarding the expectation of autonomous vehicles are identified based on the discriminant analysis. Research limitations/implications (if applicable): Level 5 autonomous vehicles are not yet reached marketability in Singapore. A stated preference survey, instead of a revealed preference survey, was thus e

Keywords

Level 5 autonomous vehicle; Moral dilemma situations; Stated preference survey; Discriminant analysis; Policy implications

Citation

Siying Zhu; Shen Loong Walt Tay; Cheng-Hsien Hsieh (2023). MORAL DILEMMA FACING AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES: INSIGHTS FROM STATED PREFERENCE SURVEY IN THE CONTEXT OF SINGAPORE. Proceedings of the International Conference on Logistics & Transport (ICLT 2023), Helsinki, Finland, pp. 172-180.