I am very fortunate to be the father of three wonderful daughters.  They are mostly grown now: the oldest two are in college and the youngest is a senior in high school.  When they were younger, however, one of the challenges I remember was teaching them when it was okay, and in fact even necessary, to break the rules.

Some of these were quite trivial, like cutting under the ropes to avoid having to walk very far (as long as you are not cutting ahead of others in line); some were more significant, like breaking driving rules when rushing to the hospital in an emergency.

As driverless technologies emerge, the engineers programming these vehicles may have to confront these same issues. In his article in The Atlantic, entitled The Ethics of Autonomous Cars, Patrick Lin writes, “Sometimes good judgment can compel us to act illegally. Should a self-driving vehicle get to make that same decision?”

I think, realistically, it has to.

Check out the article and let us know what you think.

John