The Ethics of Autonomous Cars

    In the Wired.com article that we had read in class, it discusses autonomous cars. In one of the scenarios, your autonomous car was out of control and could either crash into a mini cooper or an SUV. At first glance I would say SUV, because the SUV is bigger and therefore the person driving it would receive less damage then if I had crashed into the mini cooper. But if we were to program a car to have a mind-set to crash into a person just because their car might be bigger, then were choosing a life over another. Imagine a mother buying a large van, in order to have room for her kids and in hopes of it being safer. Well she goes out on the road and has no idea that if the autonomous car next to her were to go out of control it would choose to crash into her over the mini cooper on the other side.
    Another scenario is there is a motorcyclist without a helmet and one wearing a helmet. You have to choose which one to crash into. Once again at first glance I would most likely choose to crash into the one wearing the helmet, because he would statistically have a higher chance of living. If we were to program a car to hit a man wearing a helmet, versus one not, then were punishing the one man for most likely following the rules. This doesn't seem fair. In the end more people would end up not wearing helmets, in thinking that they would be safer.
    An idea that could be viewed as a solution would have the car make decisions through a random number generator. For example, before a crash the car would do a random algorithm and if the number is even the car turns right and if odd turns left. Personally, the whole concept of cars driving themselves is weird to me and I would rather just not have the idea all together. But it will eventually happen, and therefore a crashing system needs to be put in order. Having the car randomly choose what or where to crash is like a person making a random decision at the last moment. I honestly, think this idea is logical in a way that isn't logical. Meaning logically we would have the car be programmed to hit something that would cause the least damage, but since that can cause personnel problems the logical answer would have the car choose randomly.
    This comes to the question asked by Alexander Karasulas. If the driver is not making control decisions, should the driver be responsible for any outcomes at all? Clearly the person can not be held accountable if the car swerves and cut someones off or causes an accident due to a malfunction. But, if the person entered the car and messed with the controls, then yes they themselves can be held accountable for the outcome. For example, maybe someone who is drunk gets into an autonomous car and doesn't properly uses the car. An accident then occurs. The driver would be held accountable for not allowing the car to safely drive.

Passion Project #3

Since my last update I have memorized how to say the Russian alphabet, and I was able to work on my pronunciation by consulting the lady at my church, Ms. Irena. I practiced writing out the symbols multiple times, and have gotten accustomed to the way they are presented. I have started to put all the information into a Powerpoint, in hopes of getting a head start. Lastly, I have translated some words on my Powerpoint to Russian. These are my accomplishments since my last update. Although they may seem small, they are huge in my eyes and I will now be able to smoothly continue my project.

Passion Project #2

My newest update is both successful and a learning experience. I have a slight background history about how the Russian language came to be, which I'm very happy about finding. I learned information about the alphabet. For example, how many letters there are, which one are vowels, and which one are signs. The challenge though is that the first time I learned how to say the Russian alphabet, a friend was teaching me, so it was face to face and so much easier to learn. Now I have to find different websites that can help with pronunciation. Fortunately there is a lady at my church that speaks Russian (forgot to mention this when I was introducing my passion project). She offered to help me, which I'm extremely grateful for. During these last two weeks I learned that sometimes I can expect something to happen, but it won't always go that way. I mean if you look at my "schedule" I made for this project I was already suppose to know the alphabet by heart and this hasn't happened yet. I realized that learning the alphabet is the key to my project and that I can't really rush this goal.

Passion Project Update #1

I've only had one Passion Project so far, and that day was spent organizing. I made a chart that described what I wanted to learn each week. My goal is to teach myself basic Russian in twelve weeks. I know I won't be glued to my "schedule", and that I will switch around what I learn, but I just wanted to have a basic understanding of what I'm doing. This up coming week I'm going to learn about the background of the Russian language. How it came to be, and if it changed in any way to be what it is today?

UPDATE FOR PASSION PROJECT: WWII
     For this passion project I decided to do it on WWII. I have always been interested on the events that had occurred, but only knew the details that everyone else knew. Coming up on the halfway mark I have completed multiple slides for my Power-point. All of them are on Hitler. I not sure yet, but my project has been leaning to being all about him. It makes sense though considering he was the main reason for the war, and that he was the one man who caused Germany to do such great damage. So really in a way Hitler is WWII and therefore most of my project would be about him.
    Every Friday except for about two or three I have steadily worked on my project, and I am doing a lot better then I did for the last one. Hopefully my focus will continue and I won't stray from my project. I am excited to continue learning about Hitler and the events of WWII.