ethical roads

Final Report published - July 2023

On behalf of Reed Mobility, our fantastic collaborators (DG CIties, TRL, April 6 and Humanising Autonomy) and our sponsors (Rees Jeffreys Road Fund), I am very pleased to share that the final report for the Ethical Roads project is now available for download at the link below.

The report describes:

• the rationale behind the study - how we need to engage with the public to ensure that self-driving vehicles deliver the safe and prosperous mobility future that has been promised

• the method and results for a survey and workshops in which members of the were asked how they would expect urban self-driving buses to behave and to be operated in their community

• the implications for the development of self-driving vehicles and how this can deliver on William Rees Jeffreys’ vision for the future of roads

aBOUT THE PROJECT

In 2020, the European Commission published recommendations on automated vehicle (AV) ethics . In follow-up, Reed et al. (2021) noted that the artificial intelligence (AI) systems controlling an AV could not derive the ethical principles that sit behind the behaviours they display, suggesting that AVs should be guided by overarching ethical goal functions (EGFs). These create a framework, governed by regulators, to embody societal expectations of AV behaviour and should be determined by an inclusive, deliberative process with the communities in which AVs operate.

The Rees Jeffreys Road Fund commemorated 150 years since the birth of its namesake with a competition to explore what roads will be like 50 years from now. For this competition, Reed Mobility submitted “Developing ethical goal functions for road use”, proposing to develop the process for engaging with communities to establish societal preferences that underlie EGFs and work with an AV technology developer to demonstrate how EGFs guide AI systems.

In March 2022, Reed Mobility was one of two winners of the competition and was awarded a grant of £75,000 to deliver this project. The project was subsequently won the Research category of the inaugural Self-Driving Vehicle Awards at a glittering ceremony held at the Turner Contemporary gallery in November 2023.

Commenting on the award, Neil Kennett, editor of Carsofthefuture.co.uk said:

“We were delighted to present our inaugural Self-driving Industry Research Award to Reed Mobility. Backed by the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund, Dr Nick Reed led a brilliant project exploring public attitudes and expectations towards the ethical behaviours of self-driving vehicles. This important work covered priorities across mobility, legality, trust, safety, cost, fairness and urban design, putting the consumer front and centre. Congratulations again and we look forward to following your progress in 2024 and beyond.”