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

DutchEVO, safe or sustainable?
hydrogen cars were not feasible and electrical cars were too heavy and used too
many resources and too much energy considering the introduction date. A
lightweight car was feasible and more sustainable according to the design team.
Most people, some team members as well as people from outside, found the
term “emotional sustainability” vague and did not know what it meant and this
kept them from starting a discussion. 3
The personal experiences of engineers played a large part in arguments used
and decisions made during the design process. The ideas on car safety were
based on the experiences of the engineers (see section 4.3). George and Jill
designed the suspension concept, they both had experience with old Mini
Coopers and they thought that the suspension of these cars made them fun-todrive,
simple, light and elegant. George and Jill performed a multi-criteria
analysis because they feared that they might be prejudiced in choosing to base
the suspension on that used in the Mini Cooper. The result being that the
suspension based on that of the Mini Cooper was still the suspension of choice
for a fun drive and a lightweight car. Another example of personal experience
providing arguments for design choices is the following. Thomas was the only
one of the design team who had children. The DutchEVO was designed for 2
adults with 2 kids in the backseats. Thomas regularly emphasised the fact that
there should be allowance made for children on the backseat. For example in a
discussion on the use of fabric for the doors:
Thomas: ‘Will there be a draught, there might be small children on the
backseat.’
Thomas also indicated a few times that the car should not feel too vulnerable
because he as a parent, would not want to put his children in a car that did not
feel safe. A fabric door that would move in response to wind would be
unacceptable to him as a parent. None of the other team members ever
mentioned that kids would be seated on the backseats.
4.3 What does it mean for a car to be safe?
As indicated in the introduction I regard safety as an ethically relevant issue. In
this case-study safety is a very important issue. Within the car industry car safety
is usually defined as complying with the relevant legislation and performing well
in certain crash tests. Today a safe car is a car that protects the occupants from
critical injuries and death if it is crashed into a wall at 64 km/h (see figure 4.3).
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3
In interviews some students said that they did not understand what was meant by emotional
sustainability,( see section 4.4).
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