Department of Industrial Design, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.
Department Ethics/Philosophy of Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.
Sci Eng Ethics. 2020 Feb;26(1):387-403. doi: 10.1007/s11948-019-00101-7. Epub 2019 Mar 22.
This paper proposes that autonomous vehicles should be designed to reduce light pollution. In support of this specific proposal, a moral assessment of autonomous vehicles more comprehensive than the dilemmatic life-and-death questions of trolley problem-style situations is presented. The paper therefore consists of two interrelated arguments. The first is that autonomous vehicles are currently still a technology in development, and not one that has acquired its definitive shape, meaning the design of both the vehicles and the surrounding infrastructure is open-ended. Design for values is utilized to articulate a path forward, by which engineering ethics should strive to incorporate values into a technology during its development phase. Second, it is argued that nighttime lighting-a critical supporting infrastructure-should be a prima facie consideration for autonomous vehicles during their development phase. It is shown that a reduction in light pollution, and more boldly a better balance of lighting and darkness, can be achieved via the design of future autonomous vehicles. Two case studies are examined (parking lots and highways) through which autonomous vehicles may be designed for "driving in the dark." Nighttime lighting issues are thus inserted into a broader ethics of autonomous vehicles, while simultaneously introducing questions of autonomous vehicles into debates about light pollution.
本文提出自动驾驶车辆的设计应减少光污染。为了支持这一具体建议，本文提出了对自动驾驶车辆的道德评估，比 trolley 问题式情境中的生死困境问题更全面。因此，本文由两个相互关联的论点组成。首先，自动驾驶车辆目前仍处于发展阶段，尚未形成最终形态，这意味着车辆和周围基础设施的设计都是开放式的。通过设计价值观，可以为工程伦理指明前进的道路，即在技术发展阶段努力将价值观融入技术中。其次，有人认为，夜间照明——一项至关重要的支持性基础设施——应该是自动驾驶车辆在发展阶段的首要考虑因素。研究表明，通过设计未来的自动驾驶车辆，可以减少光污染，更大胆地说，可以更好地平衡照明和黑暗。通过两个案例研究（停车场和高速公路），可以设计自动驾驶车辆“在黑暗中行驶”。因此，夜间照明问题被纳入自动驾驶车辆的更广泛伦理框架中，同时将自动驾驶车辆的问题引入光污染的辩论中。
