Modelling societal preferences for automated vehicle behaviour with ethical goal functions

This study contributes the first empirical operationalization of ethical frameworks for AVs through the development of an Ethical Goal Function and demonstrates how it can be embedded in a Socio-Technological Feedback (SOTEF) Loop for continuous societal alignment. The dual contribution advances both the theoretical grounding and practical implementation of human-centered ethics in automated decision-making. However, several limitations remain. The reliance on a Dutch university sample restricts cultural generalizability, and textual presentation may limit ecological validity. Future work should expand the cultural diversity of participants and compare alternative presentation modalities (e.g., visual, immersive) to better capture real-world decision contexts.