"Dr Patrick Lin, director of ethics at California Polytechnic State University, wrote in 2014 that developing such a system "seems an awful lot like a targeting algorithm, similar to those for military weapons systems... this takes the robot-car industry down legally and morally dangerous paths.
Lin suggests that autonomous car makers would programme their cars to hit vehicles with a good safety record - like Volvos - and to hit motorcycle riders with helmets instead of those without.
"Crash avoidance algorithms can be biased in troubling ways, and this is also at least a background concern any time we make a value judgement that one thing is better to sacrifice than another thing."
Lin says such a system would give bikers a reason to not wear helmets and persuade car buyers away from models which are more likely to be hit because of their safety record."