The Real Moral Dilemma of Self-Driving Cars

It has nothing to do with the ‘trolley problem’

An Uber self driving car sits on display ahead of an Uber products launch event in San Francisco, California on September 26, 2019. Photo: Philip Pacheco/Getty Images

The advent of self-driving cars revived the decades-old philosophical conundrum known as the “trolley problem.” The basic setup is this: A vehicle is hurtling toward a group of five pedestrians, and the only way to save them is to swerve and run over a single pedestrian instead.