if hitting the brakes will avoid a collision, hit the brakes
else if maneuvering will avoid a collision, maneuver
else hit the brakes.
This is true. What I comment on I am not saying as
AnxietyRanger... just a, well, Ranger. I don't worry about this, as I expect Mercedes Benz has already set the tone for this (#24), but it is an interesting mental exercise.
The interesting ethical and well as utilitarian conversations happens when hitting the brakes or maneuvering in a certain manner will not avoid a collision, but would help diminish the overall losses - at the cost of some of the people or things involved in the scenario.
What to choose?
I guess the common scenario, now discussed for many years is this one:
Your big SUV car is self-driving - with you as the sole passenger - on a road when a tire blows out or perhaps some other thing happens in front - and the car is forced to start evasive maneuvers, possibly in compromised conditions.
The self-driving mechanism initiates brakes to stop to avoid collission altogether, but soon figures out it can not do it in time - a massive crash is moments away.
The only option left for the car is to steer and either hit the vehicle in front of you on the lane, on the opposing lane... or drive off the road, which in this case is a bridge.
The self-driving car makes a quick situation assessment, calculating the risks of injury and the number of people in the cars in front, which happens to be large families in small cars in both - it knows this because cameras and car-to-car comms tells it.
The self-driving car then decides on a suicide by driving off the bridge with you inside - the least number of casualities.