ARCADE’s webinar – status and challenges in safety validation of automation

On 8 September 2020, ARCADE project co-organised a webinar “What is the current status and what challenges exist in the safety validation of automation technology?” as part of the EUCAD2020 Symposium webinar series. It discussed the status and challenges in safety validation of automated vehicles as one of the levellers to achieve a safer transport system.

The webinar session debated the prerequisites to create a commonly accepted safety validation framework. On-going harmonised tests and validation methodologies were presented along with research activities addressing the new technical challenges arising from CAD. For example, Richard Schram, Technical Director at Euro NCAP, tells us about the company’s five-star safety rating system helping consumers identify a vehicle fitting their needs. Here, the vehicles are set under numerous tests assessing their safety in real-life accident scenarios and are then rated based on assessments in four areas, such as Adult Occupant Protection, or Pedestrian Protection. The higher the score, the safer the car. In 2018, they released a press release on automated vehicles, more specifically vehicles with a Highway Assist system. After numerous tests on 10 different cars with this system, they concluded no car on the market today offers full autonomy or automation, a driver still needs to remain fully responsible for safe driving.

Additionally, Mikael Ljung Aust, Senior Technical Leader Crash Avoidance from Volvo Cars stated that automated vehicles should not be “perfect”. The classic irony of automation is that the more reliable the system, the less human operators must do, the less they pay attention to the system while operating. Additionally, the more the system is reliable the more it makes it hard for operators to notice when something is wrong.

As such, it is possible to say that with the introduction of CAD on our roads, new challenges are arising every day.

You can watch the EUCAD2020 2nd webinar recording, and read all presentations on EUCAD2020 page.