Introduction
Technological advancements in the social setting that aim to improve our quality of life have brought us incredible inventions that we use nowadays on a daily basis such as cars and smartphones. Another very important part of our life is health which the modern technologies have been a great boon to. As the current trend of building more sophisticated connected systems is developing and being embraced by society, we would like to discuss and analyze three important applications of connected systems in the following sections of this report – autonomous vehicles, medical robots and other medical devices as well as smart homes.
Case Studies
Autonomous Vehicles
The concept of self-driving vehicles has been around for quite some time and has evolved ever since. Currently the automotive industry is transforming from semi-autonomous to fully autonomous driving. Semi-autonomous vehicles are able to brake, accelerate, steer, keep a certain distance from surrounding cars and maintain the driving speed to a certain limit. However, semi-autonomous cars still require full control from the driver. A fully autonomous vehicle can travel from one point to another without any interaction with the driver. [1]
We have already been experiencing a wide range of features with connected cars. Cars are connected such that they can be linked to smartphones, providing emergency roadside assistance and obtaining real time traffic alerts etc.
As the automobile industry transitions into self-automobile industry, autonomous vehicles can utilize the connectivity of multiple devices through the Internet and update their algorithms based on user data. Autonomous vehicles would require a huge amount of data collection and processing to share information about the road. The information includes actual path, traffic and how users navigate around obstacles. Such information is shared between IoT connected cars and is uploaded wirelessly to an online system to be analyzed and used to improve automation. There are already cars that utilize IoT features to achieve semi-autonomous driving on the road. [2]
Advantages of Autonomous Vehicles
One of the benefits of autonomous cars is that road safety can be improved where accidents caused by human errors can be reduced and minimized, thus resulting in fewer car accidents.
Another benefit is that traffic congestion can be reduced, which saves commuting time. With traffic flow made more efficient, commuters can also gain some extra time during drive-time, enhancing one’s productivity.
Ethical Dilemmas
Cyber Security
Connected autonomous cars will face cyber threats as hackers may steal data collected from users. Manufacturers will hold enormous amounts of important information. Personal data are therefore very vulnerable to cyber-attacks, which will likely negatively affect the profitability and prospects of the business and damage their reputation.
Through the connection to the internet and the use of electronic devices in cars, connected autonomous cars may likely be the target of cyber-attacks. It is inevitable that connected cars would hold sensitive personal data of the car users and such data could include location data, which would put users in a vulnerable situation if cyber-attackers retrieve such information. Each autonomous car that is connected is a potential entry point for hackers and this would pose physical threats to users. In addition, automotive manufacturers often hold commercially sensitive or personal information and would share such information when they work with third parties, from service providers to partners and collaborators.
The security issues must be properly addressed as more hackers with sinister intentions can compromise or even access connected vehicles from remote locations. It has been reported that a group of ‘white-hat’ hackers exploited a system flaw which enabled them to control the air conditioning, entertainment system and brakes, causing a car to stop on a highway. [4]
Privacy vs Security
Since the cars are connected, real-time information about the car’s surrounding could be accessed and sent to intended parties. With the help of AI, such information could be used to track down criminals or even prevent crimes. However, although the intention of monitoring users’ data could be an act of paternalism, car owners would feel that their privacy is being invaded.
Decision-Making during Accidents
As automobiles transform into fully autonomous vehicles, there could be ethical issues of how such connect cars would react when unavoidable fatal accidents were to happen. For example if a car is about to hit a motorcycle, should it brake causing the incoming cars from behind to crash and result in a chain of collisions or run over the motorcycle? When autonomous cars are connected, it can hold information like the number of occupants in another car. It poses ethical question on how the car will make use of such information obtained from connected system. Should the car run over the motorcycle if it knows the car behind have children on board? Or save the motorist who is more vulnerable to accidents? Connected autonomous vehicles will provide better road safety but when unavoidable accidents happen, people would have mixed reactions when such information is shared between cars as it acts as a double-edged sword, since the vehicle could decide to save or sacrifice the user.
Possible Solutions
For security issues in connected autonomous cars system, it is important for companies in the autonomous industry to be able to anticipate and come up with solutions to tackle possible security breaches. Continuous learning process should also be implemented in companies to ensure active security.
In order to address the issue on privacy, regulatory bodies should carefully apply or follow legal frameworks to protect personal data. The use of information collected should also be justified using a transparent decision process and the public can see how their data is being managed. As such, with guidelines implemented, personal data will be carefully handled.
There are already attempts to solve the ethical issues on decision making. For example, Germany is the first country that has attempted to address such issues by introducing guidelines to the autonomous industry for considerations. For example, during situation where accident is unavoidable, the guideline states that human death should be minimized and there should be no discrimination between individuals based on age, gender or other factors. In addition, human lives are given a higher priority over properties or animals. [3] If connected system is to be taken into consideration in the decision making, similar guidelines can be applied. In addition, authorities should also ensure how much information can be used or shared in the decision making such that it is deemed as an acceptable utilitarian solution to the society.
Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Future Generations
With autonomous cars being widely used in the future, it would have a huge impact on the job markets, thus affecting people such as taxi drivers. In addition, software companies such as Uber would have a competitive advantage as it can collect huge amounts of personal information thus creating a huge barrier for new companies to enter the market.[3]
In addition, there could be issues on the cross-border use of connected cars. Manufacturers and regulatory bodies should also prevent situations where autonomous cars are unable to function properly when they cross borders where the communication and operating systems are different. Therefore, countries should set up equipment at the borders that ensures that autonomous cars can have a smooth transition when it crosses over to another country or region while ensuring cybersecurity.
Medical Robots & Devices
Several robots have been invented to help humans in the medical field, such as performing medical procedures, physiotherapy, reconstructive surgery, examination, and special aid for the elderly and disabled. These robots are made differently to perform different tasks to improve the quality of life of the people around them. Some robots can provide more accurate treatment to the patient and some are able to interact with patient to help them when needed.[5]
Ethical Dilemmas
There are a few ethical problems that need to be addressed, such as lack of social interaction for the elderly and disabled [6], the responsibility of damages caused by medical robots and privacy rights. For example, would it be alright for medical robots such as the Da Vinci surgical robot to provide backup for human surgeons with a potential of inflicting injuries and who will be the one taking the responsibility?[5] Would it be alright for other family members to provide consent on behalf of the elderly or disabled for the robots to record down their doctor appointments, schedules and personal medical information that may cause privacy loss?
To further look into and resolve these ethical dilemmas of medical robots, the following ethical analysis tables and ethics line drawing below will illustrate how different groups of people are engaged to these issues. There are two groups of people involved, first is the patients and their family and the second party are the doctors that allows these medical robots to take part in medical procedures.
Action/Recommendation
Party 1: Patients & Family Members
Party 2: Medical Doctors
Ethics Category — Duty Ethics
Use of Medical Robots to help increase medical accuracy and improve people’s lives. However, robots may inflict injuries.
This is not their duty.
Duty ethics is violated if the doctors does not inform their patients on the risks before conducting any medical procedures using the robots.
Use of Medical Robots to increase man power in hospitals and save time for doctors to attend to other more urgent patients. However, may cause negligence to those patients that uses the robots.
Duty ethics is fulfilled because if patients and their family members allow the medical robots to take care of them, doctors and nurses would have more time to attend to other patients that are more in need.
Duty ethics is fulfilled because if doctors make good use of these robots to help out in the hospital, then they will have more time to help more patients.
Use of Medical Robots for data collection so that patient’s doctor can easily access the data and understand the medical situation better. However may jeopardize patient’s privacy.
Duty ethics is fulfilled because it is important for patients to keep their family members and their respective doctors up to date on their medical conditions. Besides, having the medical robots can also help to remind themselves of their doctor’s appointments.
Duty ethics is fulfilled because doctors can quickly get access to their patients’ medical data and make appropriate decision for their next treatment.
Action/Recommendation
Party 1: Patients & Family Members
Party 2: Medical Doctors
Ethics Category — Rights Ethics
Use of Medical Robots to help increase medical accuracy and improve people’s lives. However, robots may inflict injuries.
Rights Ethics will be fulfilled if patients are given the rights to choose if they want to have the robots to assist their doctors during their medical procedures. Besides, they have the rights to have better medical treatments.
Rights Ethics is fulfilled because doctors are doing their jobs in order to get paid and continue their living.
Use of Medical Robots to increase man power in hospitals and save time for doctors to attend to other more urgent patients. However, may cause negligence to those patients that uses the robots.
They are not participant in this sector.
Rights Ethics is fulfilled because the robots can reduce the doctors’ stress cause the workload can be shared not only between doctors but also the medical robots.
Use of Medical Robots for data collection so that patient’s doctor can easily access the data and understand the medical situation better. However may jeopardize patient’s privacy.
Rights Ethics will be fulfilled if patients are given the rights to choose if they allow the robots to collect their data.
Rights Ethics is fulfilled because doctors are doing their jobs in order to get paid and continue their living.
Action/Recommendation
Party 1: Patients & Family Members
Party 2: Medical Doctors
Ethics Category — Virtue Ethics
Use of Medical Robots to help increase medical accuracy and improve people’s lives. However, robots may inflict injuries.
They are not participant in this sector.
Virtue ethics may be violated if the robots inflict injuries because it is their responsibility to improve people’s lives.
Use of Medical Robots to increase man power in hospitals and save time for doctors to attend to other more urgent patients. However, may cause negligence to those patients that uses the robots.
Patient: They are not participant in this sector.
Family members: Virtue ethics violated because they are responsible to take care of their own sick family member and not neglect them.
Virtue ethics is fulfilled because it is their responsibility to help as many people as they can.
Use of Medical Robots for data collection so that patient’s doctor can easily access the data and understand the medical situation better. However may jeopardize patient’s privacy.
Virtue ethics is fulfilled because it is their responsibility to let their respective doctors know their current conditions.
Virtue ethics is fulfilled because it is their responsibility to be updated on their patients’ medical conditions and help them correctly.
Action/Recommendation
Party 1: Patients & Family Members
Party 2: Medical Doctors
Ethics Category — Act Utilitarianism
Use of Medical Robots to help increase medical accuracy and improve people’s lives. However, robots may inflict injuries.
They are not participant in this sector.
Act utilitarianism is fulfilled if all patients are well informed of the risks and are able to get better medical treatments.
Use of Medical Robots to increase man power in hospitals and save time for doctors to attend to other more urgent patients. However, may cause negligence to those patients that uses the robots.
Act utilitarianism is fulfilled because by allowing the robots to take care of them, they can let the doctors to help other patients that are more urgent.
Act utilitarianism is fulfilled because doctors can save more people.
Use of Medical Robots for data collection so that patient’s doctor can easily access the data and understand the medical situation better. However may jeopardize patient’s privacy.
They are not participant in this sector.
Act utilitarianism is fulfilled if patients are given the choice to let the robots collect their information for doctors to have a better idea on how to help them.
PT
Ethic Line Drawing, from Point-of-View of Party 1: Patients & Family Members
Location from left
NP
Not allowing the medical robots to help them and keep insisting on doctors to attend to them instead even if their condition is not serious.
Left Point
PP
Corporate with the doctors and know when to allow the medical robots to help them and know when not to let the robots help them. Also know what information to share with the robots and know what not to be shared with the robots.
Right Point
P1
Patients just corporate with the doctors and just follow what their doctors suggest to them but does not really know if it is really good for themselves.
Approx 4/10
SC1
Patients and their family members do some research beforehand to be well informed on the latest technology so that they can make decisions better and whether they wants to corporate with the doctors.
Approx 7/10
PT
Ethic Line Drawing, from Point-of-View of Party 2: Doctors
Location from left
NP
Completely ignore the potential risks and danger and just let the robots attend to the patients.
Left Point
PP
Have someone to often do checks and maintenance on all the robots to make sure they are in good working conditions and not allowing those robots to continue attending to the patients if they found that these robots are starting to act out of the norm in order to prevent robots inflicting injuries to the patients. Only allow surgical robots to assist in operation when they are 100% sure that the robot will not cause the surgery to fail.
Right Point
P1
Doctors keeps patients informed on the benefit of having a robot to assist them and also the potential danger so that they can let the patients choose whether they want to have the robot or not.
Approx 6/10
SC1
Have someone to do a check on those medical robots to reduce the risk of failed surgeries caused by the robots and still let patients choose whether they want to let the robot assist the doctor during operations even if the risk has been reduced.
Approx 9/10
Possible Solutions
From the tables above, we can see that there are some possible solutions that can be implemented to resolve some of these ethical dilemmas. One of them is by having a certified engineer to do frequent checks on these medical robots to reduce the risk of failed surgeries caused by the robots. Besides, the engineer in charge must give his/her consent first before hospital can used the robots to perform any surgery because they would know better if the robots are ready to perform such dangerous tasks. Another possible solution for privacy matters is that hospital first have to allow elderly or disabled to give consent first, family members will step in only when they are really unable to give consensus. Besides, they can also install some data protection software in these robots and allow patients or the family members to choose who they want to share the information with. Lastly, schools can also provide some knowledge about these robots to the people or people can go and do some research on their own from the internet to keep themselves updated so that when time comes, they can make better decisions on whether to use these robots.[7]
Impact of Medical Robots on Future Generations
With advance medical technology, it will cause both good and bad impact to the future generation. An example of good impact would be reducing workload for doctors and nurses when there are a lot of patients in the hospitals. On the other hand, the bad impact would be that the future generations will get lazier and lazier as they will be dependent on these robots to help them do stuff.
Smart Home Systems
Smart homes are in essence home automation systems that can control lighting, climate and various other gadgets and home appliances. Examples include lights, doors, refrigerators, thermostats, window shades and even toilets. Such devices used in smart homes form an important part of the Internet of Things (IoT) when they are connected to the Internet and can be controlled by electronic devices like smartphones and tablets or web interfaces. A typical smart home system is connected to a central hub, usually a router. This central hub is a very important part of the system because it is through it that various home devices can be controlled.
A huge amount of data is being collected in a smart home system. Some data are harmless while others might be highly sensitive. For example, the temperature you set your thermostat might not matter so much but behavioral information like your daily schedule distilled from what time you leave your house and what time you come back by controlling your house or garage door might matter a lot more. Privacy could be compromised not only by the potential dangers imposed by hackers, but also the various companies which designed and manufactured the smart devices and gadgets, and whose services are being used by your smart home. In the case of the former, hardware and software security is very important to fight against potential security breaches. In the case of the latter, almost all companies involved will ask for some collection of data for the sake of improving their products and services and smart home service providers will inevitably rely on remote services to process your information as well. To keep smart homes safe and secure, manufacturers and service providers as well as the smart home owners and users all need to follow certain protocols or rules, which are important to minimizing the ethical dilemmas involved in such a novel and still developing technology.
Ethical Dilemmas
Collection and Usage of Private Information in Smart Homes
Every smart device in a smart home collects information about its surroundings, the people living in the home and their behavioral patterns. Take the following examples. Smart lights that can detect motions will be able to know and record at what time of the day or night you go to a certain area of your home. A smart bed can record your sleep patterns like the depth of your sleep and how many times you wake up in the night to go to the toilet. Your garage door sensors can collect data regarding when you leave and come back to your house. Your smart fridge can collect information about your favorite foodstuff and eating patterns. Additionally, if you have a smart assistant like Amazon Echo or Google Home in your smart home that always listens for potential command words, it is entirely possible that Alexa or Google Assistant could pick up information like background noises from the TV programs you watch and potentially, even worse, your conversations.
It would seem to be ethically acceptable if such information collected is only used by the companies to improve their products and services, since most people who have upgraded their homes into smart homes most naturally did it to improve their quality of living at home. However, companies may share such information collected with other companies that they work closely with or work in the same ecosystem of smart home automation so as to improve their services, which would otherwise be impossible or time-consuming without such collaboration. In a more alarming scenario, huge amounts of data could be sold to the ‘Big Three’ that spearheaded the adoption of smart homes – Apple, Google and Amazon, as these companies have built their own entire ecosystem for smart homes and require such data to also improve their products and services. For example, Reuter reported in 2017 that iRobot, the maker of the popular Roomba robotic vacuum, originally planned to sell customers’ house floor plans to the ‘Big Three’ and later, due to public criticism and pressure decided to share for free such information with interested companies only after obtaining customer’s consent. [9]
Ethics of Manufacturers, Accountability and Regulations
Security protocols are the key in keeping smart devices, the private information inside them as well as the other interconnected smart devices safe and difficult to be hacked. There are definitely a number of trustworthy designers and manufacturers in the industry, such as Nest, Amazon and Philips, that have put in a lot of money and effort into making sure the smart devices they produce are secure to use. However, security comes at a price. Products manufactured by trustworthy companies like Philips are generally more expensive than those produced by less known companies. For people who wish to upgrade their homes into smart homes but are limited in financial resources, purchasing at least a number of cheaper smart devices would be an inevitable option. However, not every company rushing into this emerging market or has already been around for some time now is stressing security over cost. Now the rush is more about converting more things in your home into smart devices than making smart devices safely integrated into the existing standards. Therefore, purchasing cheap smart devices may mean making your smart home vulnerable and susceptible to attacks.
A case in point is that researchers at Context Information Security successfully hacked LIFX light bulb systems in an attempt to reveal Internet passwords. This shows that a security breach in a smart device can happen. When it does, it is not just this particular device and the data sitting inside it, but also other devices connected to the Internet that are in danger, as Internet passwords could be obtained by the hackers who could potentially take control over the entire smart home system that is interconnected via a common central hub. A follow-up to this case is that a firmware update was subsequently released by LIFX to patch the problem. [10] However, patches could be released but never used by the users as not every user may know about the security issues involved in these updates and may choose to ignore updates eventually. Furthermore, as LIFX is now fully integrated into smart home ecosystems like Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant, if a similar breach were detected in the future, should Amazon, Apple and Google also be held responsible as most smart home owners rely on a central app, most likely from these three companies, to control their homes?
This brings the discussion to the current legislative state of the industry of smart homes and smart devices. The reason that there are many smart devices that lack even the most basic security protocols is that there are no definite regulations forcing all companies to do so. Implementing more sophisticated security measures in the smart devices require investment that small or medium companies do not have. Until regulations are put in place, these companies will likely continue to do so at the expense of customers’ home security.
Possible Solutions
Since May 2017, EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been put into force across the whole EU, enforcing stricter data protection for EU citizens. Prior to its launch, major companies had been adjusting their data collection and usage schemes in order to comply with it. Companies like Philips and Yeelights were affected by GDPR as they were reported to have run into problems operating in EU and had to make further adjustments after GDPR’s launch. [11] In light of this, rolling out new regulations and policies that force companies to revise their data collection and usage schemes and mandate certain standards would help protect the private information of smart home users and act as a deterrence to the companies in the future.
As mentioned in the previous section, there is little regulation to ensure the security standards of the smart devices being designed and manufactured by companies in this industry. Standards need to be established to at least ensure a minimum level of security in the smart devices being designed and produced and sold in the market. Such standards need to be enforced by laws and regulations to bring about compliance. Any product that fail to meet the minimum level of security should not be allowed to appear on the shelves or its security flaws need to be made known on the packaging so that the customers could be advised.
Additionally, users of smart devices in smart homes need to educate themselves on the benefits and risks and know how to protect their private information as well as ensure they are doing what they can to maximize security. For example, review the data collection and usage conditions of smart devices and look out for firmware updates or even replace old unsafe products with improved ones if necessary.
Companies in this industry should also continue to invest into devising better and safer smart devices and be vigilant about potential threats. They should also consider collaboration with other companies to bring across better and safer operating standards for smart devices and smart homes so as to keep malicious invaders at bay.
Impact of Smart Homes on Future Generations
The concept of smart homes is still relatively new and the it is still evolving and going through waves after waves of changes both in terms of technological advances, social acceptance and regulatory support. It seems that it is the inevitable trend that our society is moving into. According to a survey done by the National Council for Home Safety and Security in the US, 47% of Millennial Americans indicate that they already own some smart devices in their homes and 70% of consumers of smart home technology say that they wanted to buy more smart home devices after their first purchase. 81% of home buyers indicate that a home with smart home products is more favorable one without. [12] With more technological improvements and regulations in place to safeguard our private data and home security, more people will consider upgrading their homes into smart homes, especially the Millennials and the new generations who grew up using modern technologies and are very likely to be more accepting when it comes to adopting new technologies and trends.
Conclusion
Connected systems have already been a great help to human beings in their daily lives and they are bound to be improved to deliver much more than they can now. As seen from the cases of autonomous vehicles, medical robots and other medical devices as well as smart homes, if we could successfully establish working systems to regulate the design and manufacture of such products as well as the collection and usage of private information about their users, improved connected systems will bring us much more benefits than harms. With more and more technological advancements taking place and updating the current state of such connected systems, it is very hopeful that they will impact our future life in a positive and constructive way.