Paving the Roadway for Safety of Automated Vehicles: An Empirical Study on Testing Challenges

TL;DR

This paper explores the current challenges in testing automated vehicles' safety and functionality, highlighting gaps in existing protocols and emphasizing the need for new testing approaches to ensure safety.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of testing challenges for automated vehicles based on focus groups and interviews, identifying key areas needing development for safety assurance.

Findings

Virtual testing and simulation are critical for future safety validation.

Sensor accuracy and modeling are major challenges in automated vehicle testing.

Scenario complexity and test case volume pose significant hurdles.

Abstract

The technology in the area of automated vehicles is gaining speed and promises many advantages. However, with the recent introduction of conditionally automated driving, we have also seen accidents. Test protocols for both, conditionally automated (e.g., on highways) and automated vehicles do not exist yet and leave researchers and practitioners with different challenges. For instance, current test procedures do not suffice for fully automated vehicles, which are supposed to be completely in charge for the driving task and have no driver as a back up. This paper presents current challenges of testing the functionality and safety of automated vehicles derived from conducting focus groups and interviews with 26 participants from five countries having a background related to testing automotive safety-related topics.We provide an overview of the state-of-practice of testing active safety features as well as challenges that needs to be addressed in the future to ensure safety for automated vehicles. The major challenges identified through the interviews and focus groups, enriched by literature on this topic are related to 1) virtual testing and simulation, 2) safety, reliability, and quality, 3) sensors and sensor models, 4) required scenario complexity and amount of test cases, and 5) handover of responsibility between the driver and the vehicle.