RT Article T1 Crash Algorithms for Autonomous Cars How the Trolley Problem Can Move Us Beyond Harm Minimisation JF Ethical theory and moral practice VO 21 IS 3 SP 685 OP 698 A1 Hübner, Dietmar 1968- A2 White, Lucie LA English YR 2018 UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1584861657 AB The prospective introduction of autonomous cars into public traffic raises the question of how such systems should behave when an accident is inevitable. Due to concerns with self-interest and liberal legitimacy that have become paramount in the emerging debate, a contractarian framework seems to provide a particularly attractive means of approaching this problem. We examine one such attempt, which derives a harm minimisation rule from the assumptions of rational self-interest and ignorance of one's position in a future accident. We contend, however, that both contractarian approaches and harm minimisation standards are flawed, due to a failure to account for the fundamental difference between those ‘involved' and ‘uninvolved' in an impending crash. Drawing from classical works on the trolley problem, we show how this notion can be substantiated by reference to either the distinction between negative and positive rights, or to differences in people's claims. By supplementing harm minimisation with corresponding constraints, we can develop crash algorithms for autonomous cars which are both ethically adequate and promise to overcome certain significant practical barriers to implementation. K1 Autonomous cars K1 Crash algorithms K1 Harm minimisation K1 Self-driving vehicles K1 Trolley Problem DO 10.1007/s10677-018-9910-x