Loba, Marvin (Technische Universität Braunschweig), Graubohm, Robert (Technische Universität Braunschweig), Maurer, Markus (TU Braunschweig)

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

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "ITS Policy and markets" (FrAT12), Friday, September 27, 2024, 10:30−10:50, Salon 20

2024 IEEE 27th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), September 24- 27, 2024, Edmonton, Canada

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on December 26, 2024

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 UNICARagil 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.