The best practices provide a structure for AV safety driver qualifications and training to help ensure safe automated vehicle (AV) testing operations across companies
WARRENDALE, Pa. (November 12, 2019) – The Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium (AVSC) released today its first written best practice for In-Vehicle Fallback Test Driver (IFTD) (safety operator) selection, training and oversight procedures. To promote safe development and testing, the best practice provides a structure for the qualifications and training of the humans that are on-board and responsible for safety oversight during the testing of automated driving systems SAE Level 4 and 5 research vehicles. The IFTD best practice, along with all future best practices developed by the AVSC, will be supported by all consortium members in their safety operations.
“Establishing an agreed-upon set of written principles for safety driver training is an important step to help guide the safe development and testing of SAE Level 4 and 5 vehicles,” said Dr. Edward Straub, executive director of the AVSC. “Through collaboration among the leaders in mobility, the AVSC is able to accelerate the creation and adoption of best practices that help support safe development and deployment of automated vehicles.”
The IFTD best practice offers test organizations and infrastructure owner-operators a baseline for test driving and pilot projects. It recommends a progressive framework for IFTD basic driver training that includes a combination of AV knowledge and driving skill, in addition to sound teamwork and communication processes. All current AV testing on public roads involves human oversight in some capacity, and the new IFTD best practice applies to those safety drivers in the vehicle who are responsible for the safe oversight of the vehicle during testing of SAE Level 4 and 5 automated driving systems on public roads.
Dr. Straub added: “The members of this consortium are focused on developing safe and reliable vehicles, and we are committed to applying those same principles to training IFTDs so that our communities can trust and realize the benefits of AVs for many years to come.”
The AVSC, an affiliate of SAE Industry Technologies Consortia (SAE ITC), launched in April 2019, with the goal to safely advance testing, pre-competitive development and deployment of SAE Level 4 and 5 automated vehicles. The founding members of the AVSC—SAE International, Ford, General Motors and Toyota—have since been joined by other key automotive and technology stakeholders, Uber Advanced Technologies Group, Daimler, Lyft and Honda. The AVSC will continue to leverage the expertise of its current and future members to establish a set of automated vehicle safety guiding principles to help inform standards development.
To learn more about the best practice for safety operators or IFTD, visit: https://avsc.sae-itc.org/#roadmap. To learn more about the AVSC, visit: https://avsc.sae-itc.org.
The Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium™ (AVSC) is an industry program of SAE Industry Technologies Consortia (SAE ITC®) building on principles that will inform and help lead to industrywide standards for advancing automated driving systems. The members of this consortium have long been focused on the development of safe, reliable and high-quality vehicles, and are committed to applying these same principles to SAE Level 4 and Level 5 automated vehicles so communities, government entities and the public can be confident that these vehicles will be deployed safely.
SAE Industry Technologies Consortia (SAE ITC®) is an affiliate of SAE International. The SAE ITC team specializes in establishing and managing consortia by providing proven processes, tools and resources. ITC enables public, private, academic and government organizations to connect and collaborate in neutral, pre-competitive forums thus empowering the setting and implementation of strategic business improvements in highly engineered industries globally. (www.sae-itc.com)
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