Brake or Drive: On the Relation Between Morality and Traffic Rules when Driving Autonomously

Abstract

For a safe and successful future with autonomous traffic agents (ATAs), these ATAs need to be enabled to understand and abide by traffic rules. However, purely formalising and analysing traffic rules is not enough to solve this task. In this paper, we discuss the role of moral for ATAs that follow traffic rules. In particular, moral values may enable an ATA to prioritise traffic rules, in case of conflicts. We outline an approach that uses formal verification to identify situations where traffic rules are in conflict with each other, with moral values or with specific goals of an ATA. We sketch how moral values and reasoning can help an ATA to resolve such conflicts autonomously.