Query as Test: An Intelligent Driving Test and Data Storage Method for Integrated Cockpit-Vehicle-Road Scenarios

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel logical query-based testing framework for autonomous driving systems, utilizing a unified, semantic-rich data representation called ESN to improve flexibility, interpretability, and safety validation.

Contribution

It introduces the 'Query as Test' paradigm and the ESN data framework, enabling flexible, semantic, and logical testing of autonomous driving systems across heterogeneous data sources.

Findings

Supports complex semantic queries through logical reasoning

Enhances interpretability of decision-making processes

Facilitates on-demand data abstraction and privacy protection

Abstract

With the deep penetration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the transportation sector, intelligent cockpits, autonomous driving, and intelligent road networks are developing at an unprecedented pace. However, the data ecosystems of these three key areas are increasingly fragmented and incompatible. Especially, existing testing methods rely on data stacking, fail to cover all edge cases, and lack flexibility. To address this issue, this paper introduces the concept of "Query as Test" (QaT). This concept shifts the focus from rigid, prescripted test cases to flexible, on-demand logical queries against a unified data representation. Specifically, we identify the need for a fundamental improvement in data storage and representation, leading to our proposal of "Extensible Scenarios Notations" (ESN). ESN is a novel declarative data framework based on Answer Set Programming (ASP), which uniformly represents heterogeneous multimodal data from the cockpit, vehicle, and road as a collection of logical facts and rules. This approach not only achieves deep semantic fusion of data, but also brings three core advantages: (1) supports complex and flexible semantic querying through logical reasoning; (2) provides natural interpretability for decision-making processes; (3) allows for on-demand data abstraction through logical rules, enabling fine-grained privacy protection. We further elaborate on the QaT paradigm, transforming the functional validation and safety compliance checks of autonomous driving systems into logical queries against the ESN database, significantly enhancing the expressiveness and formal rigor of the testing. Finally, we introduce the concept of "Validation-Driven Development" (VDD), which suggests to guide developments by logical validation rather than quantitative testing in the era of Large Language Models, in order to accelerating the iteration and development process.