Virtual Assessment of Automation in Field Operation – A New Runtime Validation Method

A highly or fully automated vehicle (SAE J3016 Taxonomy [1]) will be a new technology when it enters public traffic. Nevertheless the safety of this new technology will be compared to that of human drivers assisted by advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS [2]). This combination of high safety requirements and new, higher levels of complexity leads to the so called “approval trap” that could befall the introduction of automated vehicles. The “approval trap” describes the situation in which there is no known way to prove that an automated system could match a human driver in terms of safety, even if such a system should exist. It is claimed that the state of the art in vehicle testing needs to be enhanced to bring these vehicles to everyday use [3]. Regarding these challenges this paper motivates a new runtime validation method called Virtual Assessment of Automation in Field Operation (VAAFO). Based on that, the VAAFO concept is discussed with the aid of a developed architecture and use cases that illustrate the principles. The benefits and drawbacks are highlighted.