Ford exec declares urgent need for driverless-car ethics

“These cars will have the ability to process data and make decisions much faster than we will as humans,” said Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., which has promised to have robot taxis on the road by 2021. “No individual company is going to program these vehicles with a set of ethics that isn’t bought into by society at large.” The discussion to set robot-car ethics must include the auto industry, government, universities and ethicists, said Ford, who commented to reporters Tuesday after a speech at the company’s headquarters in Dearborn, Mich. With self-driving cars set to hit the road over the next five years, the need for this discussion is urgent, he said. “How do you want these vehicles to behave?” Ford said during his speech. “Whose lives are they going to save?”