Auto industry leaders publish new automated driving safety framework

Intel, in collaboration with 10 industry leaders in automotive and autonomous driving technology, have published ‘Safety First for Automated Driving‘, a framework for the design, development, verification and validation of safe automated passenger vehicles (AVs).

The paper builds on Intel’s model for safer AV decision-making known as Responsibility-Sensitive Safety (RSS).

Developing AVs that are verifiably safe by design is critical to enabling higher levels of autonomy on public roads, says Intel.

The paper brings together expertise from leading global automakers, suppliers and technology providers in the industry’s first comprehensive guidance for developing safe-by-design AVs.

The foundation of the paper is 12 guiding principles and the steps necessary to realise them. Each principle is refined into a series of capabilities that a safe AV must support; safety elements are then derived to implement the capabilities.

Intel’s RSS model is highlighted under the Drive Planning Element that supports a capability to “create a collision-free and lawful driving plan.”

This element achieves the top-level principle to behave safely as a means to understand, predict and manage the manners of AVs and help ensure they conform to the rules of the road.

A shared vision to reduce traffic fatalities through driverless technology has yielded a wide range of approaches throughout the industry. “Safety First for Automated Driving” reconciles the many different approaches into a cohesive whole where only the best and safest approach is taken.

RSS was proposed in 2017 as a technology-neutral starting point for the industry to align on what it means for an AV to drive safely.

RSS formalises human notions of common sense driving into a set of mathematical formulas that are transparent and verifiable, providing a “safety envelope” around an AV’s decision-making capabilities.