An Ethics Evaluation Tool for Automating Ethical Decision-Making in Robots and Self-Driving Cars
This academic paper examines the ethical challenges of automating ethical decision-making in robots and self-driving cars, arguing that such automation can lead to morally problematic paternalism and threaten user autonomy. The author proposes five specifications for ethics evaluation tools in robotics design, emphasizing a user-centered and proportional approach. Additionally, a sample ethics evaluation tool is sketched to help designers, ethicists, and policymakers distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable design features.
Summary and content fields are drawn from the document text and are pending editorial review.
Who issued it
Who it governs
Engineers, designers, ethicists, and policymakers should read this to understand how to ethically evaluate and govern automated decision-making in robotics.
What the document contains
The paper addresses the ethical implications of embedding moral decision-making into robots and autonomous vehicles, presents four case studies (the tunnel problem, a social robot wingman, a caregiver robot restricting alcohol, and a stubborn implantable cardiac defibrillator), and establishes five core specifications for designing robotics ethics evaluation tools.
The document does not provide binding legal regulations or statutory enforcement mechanisms, nor does it establish technical software code standards.
- Automating ethical decision-making in robotics can lead to morally problematic paternalism and threaten user moral autonomy.
- Robots that make decisions for users in hard ethical cases can be modeled as moral proxies.
- An ethics evaluation tool for robotics must be proportional, user-centered, account for the psychology of human-robot relationships, align with HRI ethics codes, and help distinguish acceptable design features.
- A hybrid, capacity-building approach involving trained ethicists and designers is practical for managing design ethics.
- Ethics evaluation tools can serve as a foundation for robot governance, quality assurance, and auditing processes.
· Introduction · Automating ethical decision-making: An ethics evaluation and the need for an ethics evaluation tool · Five specifications for ethics evaluation tools in robotics · A sketch of a proposed ethics evaluation tool · Governance applications · Future work and conclusions
How it scores
Each score is backed by a quote verified against the document text. Editorial review has not yet confirmed them.
Fairness
1/5Non-discrimination and equitable treatment
This raises several concerns over the uneven power relationships that are assumed and reinforced between Steve and his love interests.
Footnote 1
screening score · 2026-10-24
Human Dignity
3/5Respect for the inherent worth of persons
Finally, Jane wants to have a dignified death requiring that her ICD be deactivated, so her ICD use context involves complex end-of-life decision-making in a medical setting
Automating ethical decision-making
screening score · 2026-10-24
Human Oversight
4/5Humans remain in control of consequential decisions
Automating ethical decision-making runs the risk of taking users entirely out of the ethical decision-making loop in cases that: (a) have direct, and signifi- cant, moral implications for them
Automating ethical decision-making
screening score · 2026-10-24
Privacy
2/5Protection of personal data and private life
Steve might have good reasons to prefer Jibo not to divulge certain facts about his life, even if they would improve his relationship prospects, demonstrating that this context involves privacy issues
Automating ethical decision-making
screening score · 2026-10-24
Enforcement
0/5Consequences and compliance mechanisms with real force
N/A
screening score · 2026-10-24