Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Showcasing Automated Vehicle Prototypes: A Collaborative Release Process to Manage and Communicate Risk

Marvin Loba, Robert Graubohm, Markus Maurer

TL;DR

The paper addresses the lack of systematic release guidance for automated vehicle prototypes operating in public streets. It proposes an agile, Incremental release process with defined stages, release modules, and an actor-based workflow, anchored in Safety-by-Design and ISO standards, and validated through the UNICARagil demonstrations. A key contribution is the structured evidence package, including hazard analyses, RSIL-based risk signaling, and documentation that supports release decisions by a multi-stakeholder committee, augmented by external certification. The work demonstrates improved internal risk communication and transparency, and argues for the scalability of the approach across vehicle concepts, while identifying areas for future work on traceability, security, and regulatory alignment.

Abstract

The development and deployment of automated vehicles pose major challenges for manufacturers to this day. Whilst central questions, like the issue of ensuring a sufficient level of safety, remain unanswered, prototypes are increasingly finding their way into public traffic in urban areas. Although safety concepts for prototypes are addressed in literature, published work hardly contains any dedicated considerations on a systematic release for their operation. In this paper, we propose an incremental release process for public demonstrations of prototypes' automated driving functionality. We explicate release process requirements, derive process design decisions, and define stakeholder tasks. Furthermore, we reflect on practical insights gained through implementing the release process as part of the UNICAR$agil$ research project, in which four prototypes based on novel vehicle concepts were built and demonstrated to the public. One observation is the improved quality of internal risk communication, achieved by dismantling information asymmetries between stakeholders. Design conflicts are disclosed - providing a contribution to nurture transparency and, thereby, supporting a valid basis for release decisions. We argue that our release process meets two important requirements, as the results suggest its applicability to the domain of automated driving and its scalability to different vehicle concepts and organizational structures.

Showcasing Automated Vehicle Prototypes: A Collaborative Release Process to Manage and Communicate Risk

TL;DR

The paper addresses the lack of systematic release guidance for automated vehicle prototypes operating in public streets. It proposes an agile, Incremental release process with defined stages, release modules, and an actor-based workflow, anchored in Safety-by-Design and ISO standards, and validated through the UNICARagil demonstrations. A key contribution is the structured evidence package, including hazard analyses, RSIL-based risk signaling, and documentation that supports release decisions by a multi-stakeholder committee, augmented by external certification. The work demonstrates improved internal risk communication and transparency, and argues for the scalability of the approach across vehicle concepts, while identifying areas for future work on traceability, security, and regulatory alignment.

Abstract

The development and deployment of automated vehicles pose major challenges for manufacturers to this day. Whilst central questions, like the issue of ensuring a sufficient level of safety, remain unanswered, prototypes are increasingly finding their way into public traffic in urban areas. Although safety concepts for prototypes are addressed in literature, published work hardly contains any dedicated considerations on a systematic release for their operation. In this paper, we propose an incremental release process for public demonstrations of prototypes' automated driving functionality. We explicate release process requirements, derive process design decisions, and define stakeholder tasks. Furthermore, we reflect on practical insights gained through implementing the release process as part of the UNICAR research project, in which four prototypes based on novel vehicle concepts were built and demonstrated to the public. One observation is the improved quality of internal risk communication, achieved by dismantling information asymmetries between stakeholders. Design conflicts are disclosed - providing a contribution to nurture transparency and, thereby, supporting a valid basis for release decisions. We argue that our release process meets two important requirements, as the results suggest its applicability to the domain of automated driving and its scalability to different vehicle concepts and organizational structures.
Paper Structure (8 sections, 4 figures, 2 tables)

This paper contains 8 sections, 4 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. RELATED WORK
  3. DESIGN AND REALIZATION OF A RELEASE PROCESS FOR PROTOTYPE DEMONSTRATION
  4. Requirements and Derived Process Design Decisions
  5. Overall Release Process Workflow and Involved Actors
  6. Evidence for the Prototypes' Safety Assurance
  7. DISCUSSION
  8. CONCLUSION

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: Prototypes built and demonstrated in the project UNICARagil; left to right: autoSHUTTLE, autoTAXI, autoELF, and autoCARGO vankempen2023.
  • Figure 2: UML/SysML activity diagram that represents the activity "conduct release process" as a prescriptive illustration of the release process. (SysML object) indicate initial work products, (SysML action) tasks, and (SysML object) documents.
  • Figure 3: SysML block definition diagram representing an exemplary release document composition (release stage: public demonstration, prototype: autoELF).
  • Figure 4: SysML block definition diagram representing the composition of an example component release documentation by various release modules (release stage: public demonstration, prototype: autoELF).