Difficult moral situations that we face every day as drivers–and are difficult enough for us to figure out–are even harder to program into self-driving automobiles. While automakers like BMW have already developed and released features that allow vehicles to independently move through stop-and-go traffic and park themselves, they’re not ready for unexpected stimuli that involve ethical choices.
“Fully-automated driving is in my view still a long way off,” said Ian Robertson, BMW’s head of sales, in an interview with Bloomberg. “The technology will be held back by the ultimate moral question on who’s responsible.”