Challenges in Autonomous Vehicle Safety Assessment Recorded live at a US DOT workshop on May 29, 2024. Knowing whether an autonomous vehicle is safe enough to operate on public roads is an extremely difficult challenge. Assessment must include acknowledging that operating millions of miles does not come close to proving safety, that robot drivers will make mistakes -- often the same mistakes people make, fundamental incompatibilities between conventional safety engineering processes and the machine learning technology used by these systems, a pervasive lack of automotive safety standard adopt ..read more

SDV failures might have poor architectural cohesion and coupling as a critical factor. We’re reading about high profile software fiascos in car companies, and how they might be handling them, for example: The $5B VW bet on Rivian; Volvo refunding car owners over poor software. And don’t forget a steady stream of recalls over infotainment screen failures related to vehicle status indication and rear-view cameras. There are business forces at play here to be sure, such as a mad rush to catch up to Tesla for EVs. But I think there might be a system architecture issue that is also playing an outsi ..read more

MB has softened their stance on Level 3 liability, but they still don't really have your back when it matters. Good news: Mercedes Benz has improved their position on driver liability. Bad news: But they’re not there yet. A soft promise to pay insurance isn’t the biggest issue. Tort liability in a courtroom is. MB is starting yet another round of “we take responsibility for crashes” for their Level 3 DRIVE PILOT traffic jam assist automation feature, approved for use in California & Nevada as a “Level 3” system and some places outside the US as an ALKS traffic jam assist system. (h/t to Su ..read more

We should formally define SAE Level 2+ to be a feature that includes not only Level 2 abilities but also the ability to change its travel path via intersections and/or interchanges. Level 2+ should be regulated in the same bin as SAE Level 3 systems. There is a lot to unpack here, but ultimately doing this matters for road safety, with much higher stakes over the next 10 years than regulating completely driverless (Level 4/5) robotaxi and robotruck safety. Because Level 2+ is already on the roads, doing real harm to real people today. First, to address the definition folks who are losing i ..read more

I am frequently asked what I think of Waymo's progress.  Here are some thoughts on speed of progress, mishaps, and whether we know they are acceptably safe. Safety still remains the biggest question.  Waymo has made impressive progress in scaling up operations. Some had previously criticized their ramp-up for being slower than other companies, but they are looking a lot smarter these days for having done that.  We've seen some recent incidents (for example the utility pole crash) and an investigation from NHTSA. I hope those are not signs that they have started sc ..read more

Since I've been a part of the academic publication ecosystem for decades (as have some of my readers), I'll share some thoughts on the latest publication quality scandals: Junior faculty are suffering from an ever-increasing squeeze for publication and citation metrics. This has been an issue with growing severity as long as I've been at a university. Some specialty areas find it easier to publish than others for many legitimate reasons. ChatGPT is just the latest form of shady authoring technique. The academic paper mills are symptoms, not the root cause. Effectively they are exploiting doc ..read more

Waymo vs. utility pole smackdown: the utility pole won. No apparent extenuating circumstances. Nobody was injured; the vehicle was empty. The pole suffered a minor dent but is still in service. This video has an interview with the passenger who was waiting for pickup in Phoenix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAZP-RNSr0s Waymo did not provide a comment for the story. Now the Waymo utility pole safety recall report is out (https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2024/RCLRPT-24E049-1733.PDF). Interesting that the vehicle was executing a pullover maneuver at the time it hit the pole. From ..read more

 Any company testing on public roads should conform to the industry standard for road testing safety: SAE J3018.  When AV road testing first started, it was common for testers to claim that they were safe because they had a "safety driver." However, as was tragically demonstrated in the Tempe AZ testing fatality in 2018, not all approaches to safety driving are created equal.  Much more is required. Fortunately, there is an SAE standard that addresses this topic. SAE J3018_202012 "Safety-Relevant Guidance for On-Road Testing of Prototype Automated Driving System (ADS ..read more

Waymo claims they are "already saving lives" so often, and people are so taken in by that misleading claim, that I'm going to take a moment to explain why it is misleading. And especially harmful when used as justification for loose regulatory policies as it so often is. The claim:  "The data to date indicates the Waymo Driver is already reducing traffic injuries and fatalities."   Here is the claim, which has been at the top of the Waymo Safety landing page for quite a while now (https://waymo.com/safety/  as of June 4, 2024;  highlighted of those words added): Ha ..read more

 On October 2, 2023, a Cruise robotaxi dragged a woman 20 feet underneath the vehicle in San Francisco. The circumstances of the mishap and everything else are complex. But the robotaxi industry was profoundly shaken. Here are four descriptions of the events and what might be learned from those events. Each is in a different style, intended for a different audience. J. Mathews, "In a single night, self-driving startup Cruise went from sizzling startup to cautionary tale. Here’s what really happened—and how GM is scrambling to save its $10B bet," Fortune, May 16, 2024. Mainstream busine ..read more