Third-Party Non-Client Welfare Consideration Invoked in Autonomous Vehicle Design
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/165#Third-Party_Non-Client_Welfare_Consideration_Invoked_in_Autonomous_Vehicle_Design
Properties
Instance of
Third-PartyNon-ClientWelfareConsiderationinAutonomousSystemDesign
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#Third-PartyNon-ClientWelfareConsiderationinAutonomousSystemDesign
Applied to
Autonomous vehicle crash-avoidance algorithm design
Pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders as affected third parties
Balancing with
Algorithmic Harm Distribution Ethics in Autonomous Systems
Client Loyalty
Public Welfare Paramount
Concrete expression
The risk assessment scenario explicitly juxtaposes passenger welfare against the welfare of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders — third parties who are not clients, not passengers, and have no contractual relationship with the manufacturer — requiring Engineer A to give affirmative and explicit consideration to these third parties' welfare in formulating the recommendation
Confidence
0.9
Importance
high
Interpretation
Pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists who may be struck by an autonomous vehicle are paradigmatic examples of third parties who have no voice in the system's design but are foreseeably exposed to potentially fatal risk from its algorithmic decisions — Engineer A's public welfare obligation is strongest precisely with respect to these voiceless affected parties
Invoked by
Engineer A Autonomous Vehicle Risk Assessment Team Engineer
Tension resolution
The principle requires that third-party welfare be an explicit and weighted parameter in the recommendation, not merely an afterthought to passenger-protective design
Source Evidence
Source text
striking and potentially causing a fatal injury to a pedestrian, cyclist, or motorcycle rider
Text references
does the vehicle's software system instead choose an option in which the least amount of potential harm is done to any of those involved in an accident
striking and potentially causing a fatal injury to a pedestrian, cyclist, or motorcycle rider
TTL
@prefix case165: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/165#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case165:Third-Party_Non-Client_Welfare_Consideration_Invoked_in_Autonomous_Vehicle_Design a proeth:Third-PartyNon-ClientWelfareConsiderationinAutonomousSystemDesign,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Third-Party Non-Client Welfare Consideration Invoked in Autonomous Vehicle Design" ;
proeth:appliedto "Autonomous vehicle crash-avoidance algorithm design",
"Pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders as affected third parties" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Algorithmic Harm Distribution Ethics in Autonomous Systems",
"Client Loyalty",
"Public Welfare Paramount" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The risk assessment scenario explicitly juxtaposes passenger welfare against the welfare of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders — third parties who are not clients, not passengers, and have no contractual relationship with the manufacturer — requiring Engineer A to give affirmative and explicit consideration to these third parties' welfare in formulating the recommendation" ;
proeth:confidence "0.9" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "165" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-27T23:26:19.084798+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "165" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-27T23:26:19.084798+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "Pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists who may be struck by an autonomous vehicle are paradigmatic examples of third parties who have no voice in the system's design but are foreseeably exposed to potentially fatal risk from its algorithmic decisions — Engineer A's public welfare obligation is strongest precisely with respect to these voiceless affected parties" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Autonomous Vehicle Risk Assessment Team Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Third-Party Non-Client Welfare Consideration in Autonomous System Design" ;
proeth:sourcetext "striking and potentially causing a fatal injury to a pedestrian, cyclist, or motorcycle rider" ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The principle requires that third-party welfare be an explicit and weighted parameter in the recommendation, not merely an afterthought to passenger-protective design" ;
proeth:textreferences "does the vehicle's software system instead choose an option in which the least amount of potential harm is done to any of those involved in an accident",
"striking and potentially causing a fatal injury to a pedestrian, cyclist, or motorcycle rider" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 165 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-27T23:40:57.916960"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 165 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
165
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-02-27T23:26:19.084798+00:00
First case
165
Generated
2026-02-27T23:26:19.084798+00:00
Attributed to
Case 165 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-27T23:40:57.916960
Generated by
ProEthica Case 165 Extraction