http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/the-ethics-of-autonomous-cars/280360/
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the original article in the NYT (may have been just a paragraph in a larger article), but this article from the Atlantic issues similar concerns. As we discussed in class, the ethical dilemma surrounding the responsibility of our automatons is of paramount importance – do automatons belong to a higher good, or do they belong to their owners? Are automatons held responsible for their “choices”, or are their choices an embedded reflection of the programmer/owner? I believe this choices are of paramount importance beyond the theoretical realm; even in very quotidian case of the self-driving car, many lives are at stake should programming be faulty. Such errors, given the infinite passage of time, are more of a question of “when” as opposed to “if”. Who we hold responsible for such faults and responsibility is an important question as we move to an increasingly automated world.