Technical Articles From Edge Case Research

A Safety Standard Approach for Fully Autonomous Vehicles

Jul 31, 2023 | Philip Koopman, Uma Ferrell, Frank Fratrik, Michael Wagner

Assuring the safety of self-driving cars and other fully autonomous vehicles presents significant challenges to traditional software safety standards both in terms of content and approach. We propose a safety standard approach for fully autonomous vehicles based on setting scope requirements for an overarching safety case. A viable approach requires feedback paths to ensure that both the safety case and the standard itself co-evolve with the technology and accumulated experience. An external assessment process must be part of this approach to ensure lessons learned are captured, as well as to ensure transparency. This approach forms the underlying basis for the UL 4600 initial draft standard.