过去已经广泛研究了诸如手推车困境之类的伦理思想实验，表明人类以功利主义的方式行事，试图造成尽可能少的整体损害。在过去的几年中，这些手推车困境重新引起了人们的关注，特别是由于在自动驾驶车辆(ADV)中实施道德决策的必要性。我们进行了一系列实验，其中参与者在虚拟现实环境中经历了修改后的手推车困境。参与者必须在看到不同障碍物的两条车道中的一条车道上行驶之间做出决定。最终,参与者必须决定他们会撞到哪个物体上。障碍包括不同年龄和群体规模的各种类似人的化身。此外，测试了人行道作为潜在安全港的影响以及涉及自我牺牲的条件。结果显示，参与者，总的来说,以功利主义的方式决定，在其他变量有限的影响下，尽可能保留最多的化身。从这些发现中得出，这符合道德决策中的功利主义方法，将主张在ADV中实施强制性的道德设置。
Ethical thought experiments such as the trolley dilemma have been investigated extensively in the past, showing that humans act in utilitarian ways, trying to cause as little overall damage as possible. These trolley dilemmas have gained renewed attention over the past few years, especially due to the necessity of implementing moral decisions in autonomous driving vehicles (ADVs). We conducted a set of experiments in which participants experienced modified trolley dilemmas as drivers in virtual reality environments. Participants had to make decisions between driving in one of two lanes where different obstacles came into view. Eventually, the participants had to decide which of the objects they would crash into. Obstacles included a variety of human-like avatars of different ages and group sizes. Furthermore, the influence of sidewalks as potential safe harbors and a condition implicating self-sacrifice were tested. Results showed that participants, in general, decided in a utilitarian manner, sparing the highest number of avatars possible with a limited influence by the other variables. Derived from these findings, which are in line with the utilitarian approach in moral decision making, it will be argued for an obligatory ethics setting implemented in ADVs.
