Page 10 - EE Times Europe Magazine | June2020
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           AV Safety: Come Together, Right Now


           Intel, and Volkswagen), is on its way to becoming a new ISO standard.  approaches — including computing architectures, software algorithms,
             The paper outlined “a comprehensive approach to safety-relevant   and sensor fusion — pursued by different companies to ensure safety,
           topics of automated driving,” aiming “to systematically break down   said Poledna. Indeed, that was part of the impetus for launching The
           safety principles into safety-by-design capabilities, elements, and   Autonomous. TTTech Auto contends that players in the automotive
           architectures and then to summarize the verification and validation   industry need solutions that are much more specific, more concrete, and
           methods in order to demonstrate the positive risk balance,” as its   quicker on the trigger. The aim of The Autonomous is to go one or two
           authors wrote. The ISO accepted their premise, giving the industry    levels down from the upcoming ISO DTR 4804 standard, to conceive “a
                                  the go-ahead to develop and formalize   reference design implementation” the AV industry can use, he said.
                                  SaFAD.                           The goal isn’t about picking the winning black box, though.
                                    Wondering what it might take to   Instead of building AVs around black boxes, carmakers would like to be
                                  turn a “comprehensive approach” into   able to mix and match different modules — such as safety, doer-checker,
                                  a workable ISO standard, we reached   and calculation modules — from different vendors. Assume that a safety
                                  out to Jack Weast, senior principal   module from Supplier A bears no resemblance to a safety module from
                                  engineer at SaFAD member Intel and   Supplier B and that the differences pose critical compatibility issues. To
                                  vice president of standards at Mobil-  avoid that scenario, Poledna said, the AV industry must have “a common
                                  eye. “We take the original SaFAD paper,   understanding of what the safety architecture would look like,” with a
                                  clean it up, get rid of any color com-  common approach to elements such as interfaces and data structures.
                                  mentaries, and reformat the technical   On the one hand, the ISO standard is deemed too generic. On the
           Intel/Mobileye’s Jack Weast  meat of the document into the ISO   other, too many players in the AV industry are already implementing
                                  standard,” he told EE Times Europe.  different safety solutions on their own. How does The Autonomous
                                    Simon Fürst, principal expert for   plan to succeed as a middle-ground solution?
                                  autonomous driving technologies at    “If we agree on ‘doer and checker’ as a generally acceptable safety
                                  BMW Group, heads the ISO commit-  approach, I’d consider it a huge achievement,” said Poledna. He’d like
                                  tee working to formalize SaFAD and   to see the industry come to a collegial understanding on data structure,
                                  is hoping for a quick turnaround on   interfaces, and a definition of free space. The Autonomous is holding a
                                  the new standard. He announced in   series of workshops focused on such issues as computing architecture,
                                  a webcast called “The Autonomous”   AI, security, and regulation. While participants are encouraged to share
                                  that his group is shooting for mid-2020   best practices, the goal for The Autonomous group is to foster amity
                                  to publish its ISO Draft Technology   among key automotive players and publish documents and technical
                                  Report (DTR) 4804.             papers reflecting state-of-the-art solutions in the industry.
                                    Weast described the DTR as the first
            BMW’s Simon Fürst     step for ISO standardization.  NARROW FOCUS
                                    Several auto industry sources called   If The Autonomous is clicking one or two levels down from the ISO
           the new ISO standard a step in the right direction but warned that it   standard, Weast said that the IEEE P2846 working group, which he
           would be years before the draft becomes the final standard. Further-  chairs, is boring down further into the details, focusing on “a very nar-
           more, they said that they find it too generic and too high-level to help   row area of decision-making capability.”
           automotive OEMs in the short term.                      The benefit of being narrowly focused is that “we can go much
             Intel’s Weast acknowledged that the scope of the document is “pretty   deeper,” said Weast. In examining the decision-making process, “we
           broad.” But he defended it as “a big umbrella,” covering discussions of   also look at what kinds of assumptions we’d make about other road
           how to “define, derive, develop, and test an automated driving system   users.” Depending on the city or the situation (an intersection with an
           end to end.”                                          occluded view, for example) in which an AV is driving, knowledge of the
             Noting that the document offers “a useful
           structure,” Weast said that Intel/Mobileye is
           “obviously supportive of the safety-by-design
           principles.” The document provides “a very well-
           thought-out way of doing things,” he said. “This
           is why it’s great to have an ISO document.”

           GOING ONE OR TWO LEVELS DOWN
           The Autonomous (creator of the eponymous
           webcast) is an initiative of TTTech Auto,
           which specializes in safe software and hardware
           systems for advanced vehicles. Poledna told
           EE Times Europe that TTTech Auto is convening
           many players in the automotive ecosystem at an
           event to “brainstorm and discuss” development
           of “a proving ground” for car OEMs, Tier Ones,
           and chip vendors to test out the safety of their
           AV systems.
             “They need to have certain exchanges
           amongst themselves” at a time when everyone
           is struggling to figure out what it takes to bring
           safe L3 and L4 cars to market, he added.  Everyone is struggling to figure out what it takes to bring safe L3 and L4 cars to market.
             The Autonomous is fully aware of the many   (Image: The Autonomous)

           JUNE 2020 | www.eetimes.eu
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