Application and design of a decision-making model in ethical dilemma for self-driving cars

Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) has promoted application and development of self-driving cars. However, when self-driving cars encounter ethical dilemma, it is still hard to make a satisficing and clear decision-making by these present moral rules and mechanisms, which makes people distrust in...

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Main Authors: Guoman Liu, Jing Sheng, Zhen Tao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-03-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-91921-0
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author Guoman Liu
Jing Sheng
Zhen Tao
author_facet Guoman Liu
Jing Sheng
Zhen Tao
author_sort Guoman Liu
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) has promoted application and development of self-driving cars. However, when self-driving cars encounter ethical dilemma, it is still hard to make a satisficing and clear decision-making by these present moral rules and mechanisms, which makes people distrust in self-driving cars in real life. It is necessary to design a computational and multi-factor decision-making model for self-driving cars. ACWADOE (WADOE Based on Attribute Correlation) is proposed to achieve probabilities of going straight and swerving in ethical dilemmas from more influencing factors to make satisficing and clear decision-making as far as possible. In order to construct ACWADOE model, the prior probability between influencing factor and decision-making is calculated by survey data in moral machine, which can express human preferences and tendencies, align with the requirements of the majority. Then 116 dilemmas are designed and chosen to solve correlation coefficient between influencing factors. Moreover, 84 comparative dilemmas are designed to achieve information gain ratio between influencing factors, then the weight of each factor in decision-making can be calculated by constructing pairwise comparison matrix. Lastly, 40 dilemmas are used to test and verify NB (Naive Bayes), ADOE (Averaged One-Dependence Estimators), WADOE (Weighted ADOE) and ACWADOE respectively. The test results show that ACWADOE is more suitable with human requirements than other models, its accuracy is 92.5%. Furthermore, ACWADOE not only provides a computational decision-making model in ethical dilemma for self-driving cars, but also provides a few references for other AI systems to solve ethical dilemma, which is conducive to make satisficing and clear decisions.
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spelling doaj-art-1b682a0ca65044b6892f5ba4a88aba742025-08-20T02:56:16ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-03-011511910.1038/s41598-025-91921-0Application and design of a decision-making model in ethical dilemma for self-driving carsGuoman Liu0Jing Sheng1Zhen Tao2Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Precision Drive and Equipment, Nanchang Institute of TechnologyJiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Precision Drive and Equipment, Nanchang Institute of TechnologyJiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Precision Drive and Equipment, Nanchang Institute of TechnologyAbstract Artificial intelligence (AI) has promoted application and development of self-driving cars. However, when self-driving cars encounter ethical dilemma, it is still hard to make a satisficing and clear decision-making by these present moral rules and mechanisms, which makes people distrust in self-driving cars in real life. It is necessary to design a computational and multi-factor decision-making model for self-driving cars. ACWADOE (WADOE Based on Attribute Correlation) is proposed to achieve probabilities of going straight and swerving in ethical dilemmas from more influencing factors to make satisficing and clear decision-making as far as possible. In order to construct ACWADOE model, the prior probability between influencing factor and decision-making is calculated by survey data in moral machine, which can express human preferences and tendencies, align with the requirements of the majority. Then 116 dilemmas are designed and chosen to solve correlation coefficient between influencing factors. Moreover, 84 comparative dilemmas are designed to achieve information gain ratio between influencing factors, then the weight of each factor in decision-making can be calculated by constructing pairwise comparison matrix. Lastly, 40 dilemmas are used to test and verify NB (Naive Bayes), ADOE (Averaged One-Dependence Estimators), WADOE (Weighted ADOE) and ACWADOE respectively. The test results show that ACWADOE is more suitable with human requirements than other models, its accuracy is 92.5%. Furthermore, ACWADOE not only provides a computational decision-making model in ethical dilemma for self-driving cars, but also provides a few references for other AI systems to solve ethical dilemma, which is conducive to make satisficing and clear decisions.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-91921-0Self-driving carsEthical dilemmasDecision-makingComparison matrix
spellingShingle Guoman Liu
Jing Sheng
Zhen Tao
Application and design of a decision-making model in ethical dilemma for self-driving cars
Scientific Reports
Self-driving cars
Ethical dilemmas
Decision-making
Comparison matrix
title Application and design of a decision-making model in ethical dilemma for self-driving cars
title_full Application and design of a decision-making model in ethical dilemma for self-driving cars
title_fullStr Application and design of a decision-making model in ethical dilemma for self-driving cars
title_full_unstemmed Application and design of a decision-making model in ethical dilemma for self-driving cars
title_short Application and design of a decision-making model in ethical dilemma for self-driving cars
title_sort application and design of a decision making model in ethical dilemma for self driving cars
topic Self-driving cars
Ethical dilemmas
Decision-making
Comparison matrix
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-91921-0
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AT jingsheng applicationanddesignofadecisionmakingmodelinethicaldilemmaforselfdrivingcars
AT zhentao applicationanddesignofadecisionmakingmodelinethicaldilemmaforselfdrivingcars