Ethical issues in engineering design - 3TU.Centre for Ethics and ...

Table 8.1: Summary of the DutchEVO case-study.
Radical, high level design
Ethical issues
questions and
problems
Driver should feel
vulnerable, design
team chooses not
to include all kinds
of safety systems.
A light car always
has a disadvantage
in a collision with
a heavier car but it
is more
sustainable.
It is not possible to
include all existing
passive and active
safety systems in a
light car.
A sustainable car
is a very light car.
A sustainable car
is a lightweight car
even if it is
difficult to recycle
The DutchEVO
should be
emotionally
sustainable.
Kind of issues Solution and
decision approaches
Operationalisation II of
safety
Trade-offs between safety
and sustainability
Trade-offs between safety
and sustainability
Operationalisation II of
sustainability
Operationalisation II of
sustainability
Operationalisation II of
sustainability, friction
with other parts of
operationalisation of
sustainability.
Conclusions of the empirical study
Rejection of existing
regulative framework
based on personal
experience. This
became an internal
design team norm.
Some limited
literature research.
Personal and design
experience.
Discussions,
developing of internal
design team norm.
Literature research,
discussions, ideas on
recycling from PhD
students on recycling,
developing of internal
design team norm.
Emotional
sustainability is based
on literature about
design and personal
experience. Fun-todrive
became an
internal design team
norm.
Decision
makers
Engineers
Engineers
Engineers
Engineers
Engineers
Engineers
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