THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

Safety Questions (Ethical Issues in the Design of Ultra-Lightweight Vehicles)

Author(s): Missy Cummings, Anke van Gorp

These are the questions that correspond to the safety portion of the ethics case study. You can have them sent to any e-mail address you choose which could be a professor, yourself, or even your mom and dad! (Note: Your IP address will be logged in case of abuse.)

Edit: This form has been disabled and is no longer supported by the OEC.

1. Enter your email address in the space provided below.

2. Enter the e-mail address of the person you want your answers sent to in the space provided below.

3. Are the fundamental responsibilities of safety engineers compromised in the design of this lightweight car?

4. Risk and cost benefit analysis are critical components of any engineering process. Describe the ethical issues that a designer of a lightweight car faces when conducting these analysis.

5. If the theory of risk homeostasis is correct (there are debates about this, some studies indicate that the theory is empirically verified and others claim that the theory is empirically refuted), is it ethical to design cars for perceived levels of risk? Why or why not?

6. Should lightweight cars be required to meet the same government safety regulations as regular cars? Why or why not? Is the government obligated to introduce any new legislation regarding the manufacturing of lightweight cars?

7. If some cars are significantly more safe than others, are engineers violating any ethical standards in designing cars that are not as safe as they could be? What other factors come into play in addition to ethical considerations when designing for safety?

M. Cummings & A.C. van Gorp. Copyright © 2003. All rights reserved. Revised: 9/21/03

These are the questions that correspond to the safety portion of the ethics case study. You can have them sent to any e-mail address you choose which could be a professor, yourself, or even your mom and dad! (Note: Your IP address will be logged in case of abuse.)

Edit: This form has been disabled and is no longer supported by the OEC.

1. Enter your email address in the space provided below.

2. Enter the e-mail address of the person you want your answers sent to in the space provided below.

3. Are the fundamental responsibilities of safety engineers compromised in the design of this lightweight car?

4. Risk and cost benefit analysis are critical components of any engineering process. Describe the ethical issues that a designer of a lightweight car faces when conducting these analysis.

5. If the theory of risk homeostasis is correct (there are debates about this, some studies indicate that the theory is empirically verified and others claim that the theory is empirically refuted), is it ethical to design cars for perceived levels of risk? Why or why not?

6. Should lightweight cars be required to meet the same government safety regulations as regular cars? Why or why not? Is the government obligated to introduce any new legislation regarding the manufacturing of lightweight cars?

7. If some cars are significantly more safe than others, are engineers violating any ethical standards in designing cars that are not as safe as they could be? What other factors come into play in addition to ethical considerations when designing for safety?

M. Cummings & A.C. van Gorp. Copyright © 2003. All rights reserved. Revised: 9/21/03

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