Chapter Event Safety & Architecture

On Thursday, June 24, together with Fraunhofer IESE, we held our sixth Chapter Event, this time focusing on the topic of Safety & Architecture and the next-generation technologies for autonomous vehicles.

Over 200 international engineers, researchers, consultants and executives from OEMs, automotive suppliers, universities, and technology companies joined the online event to deep dive into two main focus topics, listen to expert presentations, identify and discuss safety challenges within the area of fail-operational architectures for autonomous driving. The virtual Chapter Event assembled a very diverse lineup of speakers:

• Jan Reich – Expert Dynamic Assurances for Connected Autonomous Systems at Fraunhofer IESE
• Fabian Oboril – Research Scientist for Dependable Driving Automation at Intel Labs
• Bertrand Ricque – Program Manager and Team Leader at Safran Electronics & Defense
• Iain Whiteside – Principal Scientist, Director of Assurance at Five
• Bernhard Kaiser – Principal Safety Consultant at ANSYS
• Rolf Johansson – Safety Expert at Astus

Their presentations and panel discussions covered the following focus topics:

FOCUS I: DYNAMIC RISK MANAGEMENT FOR AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS

1. Current research challenges for dynamic safety assurance of AV
2. Risk Assessment for AV Safety Models
3. Autonomous systems shift the existing risk paradigm

The takeaway of this session was that in addition to classic methods to achieve safety, other approaches such as Dynamic Risk Management (DRM) need to be implemented to ensure the safety of automated vehicles once they are allowed on public roads. All experts agreed on the fact that the industry needs to work towards standardized methods for DRM. At the moment, the closest standardization activity on this topic is the IEEE P2846 Working Group focusing on “Assumptions for Models in Safety-Related Automated Vehicle Behavior.”

FOCUS II: SYSTEMATIC ENGINEERING OF OPERATIONAL DESIGN DOMAINS FOR AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS

1. Engineering ODDs for Safe Autonomy
2. The usage of ODD specifications in the context of SOTIF
3. Why mechanisms for staying inside the ODD should come at no extra cost

Multiple challenges were addressed during the second focus topic. The experts’ main advice is related to finding a common understanding of ODDs as well as a clear definition for the AV industry. Additional ODD usages have been recently identified, such as being able to detect when a vehicle exits the operational design domain. Moreover, providing an accurate and precise description of the ODD is crucial for multiple stakeholders, such as local authorities, in charge of offering permits for road tests or suppliers who provide different components and systems that will have to match with those from potential competitors.

We are currently gathering technical feedback from all our participants and summarizing the valuable input of this Chapter Event Safety & Architecture, which will be included in an in-depth event report. If you are interested in contributing to our work towards reference solutions in safe autonomous mobility, please get in touch with us!