UPSC Prelims 2021 · CSAT (Paper 2) · Q42

Comprehension

Medium · Rational implications

Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the passage only.

As autonomous vehicles move from prototype to product, manufacturers face decisions with no historical precedent: how software should prioritise outcomes in an unavoidable collision, and who bears legal responsibility when an algorithm's split-second choice results in harm. These are no longer speculative puzzles for a philosophy seminar; they are engineering specifications that must be written into code before a single unit reaches the road.

With reference to the passage, consider the following statements:

1. Rules for how software should prioritise outcomes in a collision must be decided before the vehicles are sold to the public.

2. Assigning legal liability for an algorithm's decisions is a practical question that must be addressed before wide deployment, not after.

3. Once autonomous vehicles are deployed, questions of responsibility become purely philosophical rather than practical.

Which of the above statements are plausible, practical implications of the passage?