Ethics Experts Want Self-Driving Cars Approved Like New Drugs

Instead, the U.S. Department of Transportation should model its self-driving car regulations to an unlikely agency: the Food and Drug Administration. At least that’s what philosophy professors at Carnegie Mellon University David Danks and Alex John London wrote in an oped earlier this year.

Self-driving cars are like drugs in that, in their trial stages, no one knows exactly how they will respond in different environments and circumstances. Driverless cars will have to figure out what “good driving” looks like, which may differ from situation to situation. Similarly, drugs may react differently to given the person or environment, Danks explained in an interview with Jalopnik.