Operational Safety for Level 4 Automated Driving System Fleets
/
October 2021 - Ongoing
Sponsor: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Collaboration with TRC Inc. and Toxcel
Automated Driving Systems (ADS) offer the potential to reduce crash-related deaths and injuries, improve access to transportation, reduce traffic congestion and emissions, and improve productivity and quality of life for millions of people1. To realize these benefits, ADS vehicles utilize complex sensors, processing, algorithms, and controls to avoid many of the crash scenarios that occur today with human drivers and aspire not to introduce critical new crash scenarios. In addition to addressing safety in the design and development of ADS, methods for establishing and maintaining safe operations throughout deployment may also become an important part of the public’s acceptance for ADS-equipped vehicles.
One of the promising opportunities of ADS deployment is their operations in a “mobility as a service” model using highly automated vehicles. Companies, or fleet operators, such as Waymo and Uber, among many others, have started to develop and/or pilot-test such services in a few pilot locations in the country. To ensure safe operations of highly automated vehicles (e.g., SAE Level 4), operational safety oversight becomes very critical and it is principally the responsibility of the fleet operator. Operational safety responsibilities of the fleet operator may include roles, functions, and aspects related to: inspections; dispatching; maintenance and repair; ODD-related vehicle usage; in-service health and status monitoring; incident response; crash investigation and reporting; teleoperations; staffing; training; recordkeeping, and other related functions. Correct and consistent adherence to policies, procedures and strategies to achieve the ADS relevant operational safety responsibilities will likely be essential to facilitate safe, ongoing operations of ADS-equipped vehicles within the fleet. Put simply, the fleet operator may play a large role in the safety of ADS-vehicles deployed in commercial “mobility as a service” models.
Objectives
The project focuses on identifying safety risks associated with ongoing ADS fleet operations and the responsibilities and activities (i.e. policies, procedures, and strategies) of the fleet operator to mitigate such risks. Special attention should be given to those fleet responsibilities and activities which are particularly important for maintaining safe operation of ADS vehicles. Further, the project seeks to identify relevant operational safety best practices being applied by commercial vehicle fleets (light and heavy duty), ADS developers who are beginning to operate ADS fleets; and potentially, other transportation modes such as aviation, rail, and buses.
People
Principal Investigator: Prof. Ali Mosleh
Co-Principal Investigator: Prof. Jiaqi Ma
Principal Researcher: Dr. Marilia Ramos
Graduate Student Researcher: Camila Correa Jullian
Related Publications
CORREA-JULLIAN, C.; MCCULLOUGH, J.; RAMOS, M.; MA, J.; DROGUETT, E.; MOSLEH, A. Modeling Fleet Operations of Autonomous Driving Systems in Mobility as a Service for Safety Risk Analysis. In Proceedings of the 32nd European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL), Dublin, 2022. Download.
CORREA-JULLIAN, C.; MCCULLOUGH, J.; RAMOS, M.; MA, J.; DROGUETT, E.; MOSLEH, A. Safety Hazard Identification for Autonomous Driving Systems Fleet Operations in Mobility as a Service. Proceedings of the Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference PSAM 16, Hawaii, 2022. Download.
RAMOS, M.; CORREA-JULLIAN, C.; MCCULLOUGH, J.; MA, J.; MOSLEH, A. Hazard Identification Framework for Level 4 Automated Driving Systems Fleet Operational Safety in Mobility as a Service. Presented at the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Annual Meeting, Tampa, Florida, 2022.
CORREA-JULLIAN, C.; MCCULLOUGH, J.; RAMOS, M.; MA, J.; MOSLEH, A. Safety Hazard Identification for Autonomous Driving Systems Fleet Operations in Mobility as a Service. Presented at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, 2023.
RAMOS, M.; CORREA-JULLIAN, C.; MCCULLOUGH, J.; MA, J.; MOSLEH, A. Automated Driving Systems Operating as Mobility as a Service: Operational Risks and SAE J3016 Standard. Presented at the Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium (RAMS), Orlando, Florida, 2023.
