Safety testing for connected and automated vehicles through physical and digital iterative deployment

Currently, many manufacturers are selling vehicles with SAE Level 2 or 3 automation and testing with more advanced vehicles on public roads (Level 4). However, recent crashes have raised critical questions about their safety. Are these vehicles with lower or higher automation safe enough to drive on public roads, and more fundamentally, how do we assess their safety envelope? Currently, there is no consensus about whether testing should exist at the state or federal level, what functions should be tested, and how independent testing should occur, and what constitutes safe thresholds. In this CSCRS project, the research team seeks to address this gap by developing a comprehensive testing protocol specifically for Level 2 and 3 connected and automated vehicles by using a novel software and physical deployment platform which allows rapid iterative development. With such a testing protocol, automated vehicles can be systematically tested and certified to be generally safe before being tested on public roads. The key objectives of this research are to: (1) Conduct a thorough review of ongoing efforts by standards organizations such as SAE, ISO and others including the UL 4600 standard under development. (2) Develop a testing protocol that will standardize how to systematically and safely test Level 2 and 3 automated vehicles regarding their functions and capabilities with considerations of the driver and environment settings. The protocol will be designed to allow accelerated testing and identification of fringe cases and stress points where automated systems will be prone to failure. (3) Provide safety certification standard recommendations that regulatory agencies at the state and federal levels and the private sector can use, if they so choose. (4) Involve stakeholders, i.e., government agencies and private sector companies, in the CAV testing and enable discussion on safety and certification processes.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • CSCRS2019R27

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $147,520
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747113

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  Chapel Hill, NC  United States  27514
• Project Managers:

  Sandt, Laura

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Tennessee, Knoxville

  Knoxville, TN  United States 

  Duke University

  Durham, NC  United States  27708
• Principal Investigators:

  Chakraborty, Subhadeep

  Cummings, Missy

  Khattak, Asad J

• Start Date: 20190701
• Expected Completion Date: 20220531
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Computer vision; Connected vehicles; Hardware in the loop simulation; Level 2 driving automation; Level 3 driving automation; Recommendations; Stakeholders; Standards; Test procedures; Vehicle safety
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01715889
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747113
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Sep 5 2019 3:01PM