Virtual Reality Driving Simulator

Mission

Before accidents occur, decisions have to be made both for drivers of less automated vehicles and for the artificial intelligences (AI) in autonomous vehicles. At a red-light traffic signal, the decision between stopping and continuing appears comparatively easy. However, if a child unexpectedly runs onto the road while the vehicle is moving and the only way to avoid it is to swerve in the direction of other people, the decision is much more difficult to answer ethically. Therefore, it is especially such extreme cases and the resulting ethical aspects that currently occupy philosophers as well as engineers and legislators and therefore have a high relevance. Before the AI of a vehicle can decide in such a dilemma situation, it must first be clarified how humans behave or should behave in such a situation. Therefore, this thesis will investigate what decisions people make within a virtual reality (VR) driving simulation that are oriented towards the moral thought experiments of trolley problem dilemmas.

Implementation

Build in Unity with a Logitech G920 steering wheel and a HTC Vive Pro Eye

Collaboration

This thesis project was a collaboration with the Robotics Lab lead by Prof. Dr. Frank Schrödel

Video