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Autonomous Mercedes Will Save Occupants Before Anyone Else

(Credit: Mercedes-Benz)

Car Safety

Autonomous Mercedes Will Save Occupants Before Anyone Else

Mercedes-Benz F 015

Mercedes-Benz F 015 (Credit: Mercedes-Benz)

One of the big ethical debates when it comes to autonomous cars is how they will react when only some people can be saved in an accident. Car and Driver published comments from Christoph von Hugo, an executive of Mercedes-Benz, about how the company’s autonomous drive systems place a premium on the well-being of drivers and passengers, above pedestrians.

As you can imagine, that really didn’t sit well with a lot of people. And it played into the whole stereotype of who drives Mercedes.

Many people pointed out that anyone shopping for a car would like that kind of a feature. After all, who cares about the lives of strangers versus loved ones?

After the big blowout with this news, Mercedes-Benz is backtracking fast. The company says placing a priority on the lives of people inside the car over everyone else is wrong on many levels. Mercedes-Benz PR has been working overtime, emailing everyone who ran the original stories and saying von Hugo wasn’t quoted correctly and did not articulate the position of the company.

What the company says is that “neither programmers nor automated systems are entitled to weigh the value of human lives.” Instead, the company says it’s emphasizing avoidance technologies so everyone is saved all the time. That might sound overly optimistic because it is, but when PR goes into a frenzy like this, that’s what you get.

So there you have it: your Mercedes-Benz might kill some pedestrians, or maybe even you. Is that better?

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