Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Co (corporate.ford.com/homepage.html), has said that the automotive industry and public institutions must address ethical issues emerging in “a world where robot cars will make life-and-death decisions in roadway crashes”.

In a speech at the company’s headquarters in Dearborne, Michigan, the great-grandson of Henry Ford said: “These cars will have the ability to process data and make decisions much faster than we will as humans. No individual company is going to program these vehicles with a set of ethics that isn’t bought into by society at large.”

Since warning of “global gridlock” in a 2011 on-line TED talk, Ford has pushed his company to embrace new methods of
mobility, including ride-sharing and driverless cars. Ford intends to have so-called robot taxis on the road by 2021 and driverless cars for public use by 2025.

Mr Ford went on to say that accidents will still happen with driverless cars. “In those moments, a car may have to choose the lesser of two evils — for example, swerving onto a crowded sidewalk to avoid being rear-ended by a speeding truck or staying put and placing its occupants in mortal danger.

“There are a lot of ethical issues as a society that we have to work through before we have widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles — and that’s not getting talked about enough. The issue needs very deep and meaningful conversations. Hopefully, we’ll get thoughtful people together to have this discourse. It has to happen.”