Exploring the Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles through Immersive Virtual Reality in the Cyma Rubin Visualization Gallery

In Fall 2022, researchers from the NC State University NeuroComputational Ethics Research Group reached out to the Libraries to utilize the immersive capabilities of the Cyma Rubin Visualization Gallery for a research project examining the moral decision-making of self-driving cars. Using the immersive technologies of the Visualization Gallery, research participants viewed and evaluated a series of traffic scenario vignettes built in a virtual reality environment. The data collection for this project originally entailed utilizing multiple VR headsets, which is a time-consuming and restrictive process. The opening of the Cyma Rubin Visualization Gallery and the subsequent availability of the Libraries' Visualization Spaces Development Kit (VisSDK) for Unity made it possible for the vignettes to be shown at the same time to groups of up to 25 study participants.

This project explores ethical dilemmas related to the emerging field of autonomous vehicles. Many philosophical experiments working to inform ethical traffic decisions trace their origins to the Trolley Problem, which presents participants with a moral quandary—divert a runaway trolley to save five individuals, or abstain, allowing the trolley's course to unfold. In the latter scenario, more lives are lost, but the participant avoids direct intervention, evading the burden of active decision-making. While this paradigm has expanded our understanding of moral conflicts, it has faced criticism for its limited practical applicability, partly due to its binary nature. This project hopes to move past this paradigm and eliminate the problematic binary by utilizing the Agent-Deed-Consequences (ACD) model of Moral Judgement. The ADC model integrates virtue ethics into the well-established dichotomy posed by the Trolley Problem. By incorporating this important moral dimension, the model retains its operational feasibility while introducing a pivotal consideration—our roadways are full of agents. Furthermore, it offers a novel viewpoint by conceptualizing autonomous vehicles as moral agents—a potential prerequisite for realizing full autonomy. 

The ADC model was tested and verified using large-scale textual surveying, which has been criticized for a lack of realism. Considering the goal is to eventually inform the ethics of fully autonomous vehicles, transitioning textual vignettes into virtual vignettes is a logical next step, as virtual reality is touted as producing increased psychological realism; meaning, it activates more similar mental processes to real-world situations than textual descriptions of similar events. NC State student developers created seven virtual vignettes using the Unity Real-Time Development Platform. Each vignette includes eight versions of the same story, which vary in minor but ethically significant ways. This is made possible by the environmental control capabilities of Unity that allow large portions of the world to be replicated and smaller pieces to be tweaked.

Research participants view the vignettes inside the Cyma Rubin Visualization Gallery and are asked to evaluate the moral acceptability of a single scenario version. Evaluations are compared across individuals to gauge the acceptability of each event chain. By transitioning from the rigidity of binary moral dilemmas through the ADC model, we embrace the complexity of human decision-making with vignettes that encapsulate a spectrum of possibilities. Furthermore, the foray into immersive virtual reality unchains our experiments from the confines of text, allowing us to explore the psychological nuances of moral conflicts in an environment that more closely mirrors real-life scenarios. 

Over the Spring and Fall 2023 semesters, we held 10 data collection sessions with over 120 study participants in the Visualization Gallery and are currently continuing to collect data. As we progress, our aspirations extend beyond the laboratory; we envision contributing to the ethical foundations of autonomous vehicles, fostering a future where technology intertwines seamlessly with human values.