How to Regulate Moral Dilemmas Involving Self-Driving Cars: The 2021 German Act on Autonomous Driving, the Trolley Problem, and the Search for a Role Model

Abstract

With the promulgation of the Autonomous Driving Act in summer 2021, Germany took the worldwide lead on regulating self-driving cars. This Article discusses the (non-)regulation of moral dilemmas in this act. To this end, it clarifies the role of the so-called trolley problem, which influenced the report of the German Ethics Commission that paved the way for this act in particular and the relationship between philosophical reasoning, empirical studies, and the law in general. By introducing the international legal community to the (non-)regulation of moral dilemmas in the German act, the Article critically reviews the German goal, which is to serve as a European and international role model. This will be preceded by a discussion as to why self-driving cars should be allowed as well as the moral dilemmas they cause which should be regulated by the law.

Keywords

• Article 2 ECHR
• right to life
• human dignity
• moral dilemmas
• regulation of (crashes with) self-driving cars
• trolley problem