The best course of action: on the wicked problem of self-driving cars

Abstract

Self-driving cars could save countless lives. Implementation of such technology seems desirable however how can we do it well? Other articles mostly look at one aspect of the problem either through a legislative aspect, social, or an ethical aspect. This paper looks at the system as a whole. Implementation of self-driving cars seems to have the characteristics of a wicked problem. Wicked problems are social problems that are hard to solve because they have interested parties which are often fundamentally at odds with each other, solution depends on the way the problem is formulated and are impossible to implement on a trial and error basis. In order to implement a solution we need a coping strategy. Three possible strategies are discussed in this paper: authoritative, collaborative, and competitive. While an authoritative strategy might allow for a quick implementation and a collaborative strategy for a nuanced and well integrated implementation, a competitive strategy would allow all stakeholders to have a say in the implementation without sacrificing too much implementation speed.