This article also appears in
Subscribe now »
A Cruise autonomous vehicle performs on-road testing. (Cruise)

SAE and ISO refine the Levels of Driving Automation

The two global standards giants updated SAE J3016, the industry’s reference for driving automation capabilities.

Aiming for greater clarity for a global audience, SAE International, in collaboration with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), updated in May the industry’s reference for driving automation capabilities. SAE J3016 Recommended Practice: Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to Driving Automation Systems for On-Road Motor Vehicles is commonly referenced as the SAE Levels of Driving Automation.  

SAE J3016 provides a taxonomy with supporting terms and definitions for SAE’s six levels of driving automation. The SAE Levels range from no driving automation at Level 0 to full driving automation at Level 5, in the context of motor vehicles and their operation on roadways. This latest update to SAE’s Levels of Driving Automation refines the previous version of the RP with the addition of several new terms, considerable refinement and clarification of misinterpreted concepts. It also restructures certain definitions into more logical groupings.  

“As the development of automated driving technologies continues on a global scale, SAE J3016: Levels of Driving Automation has evolved to align with the developing technologies and deployment strategies. Our collaborative partnership with ISO allowed us to expand and refine the Recommended Practice to better equip international customers with clear, concise and consistent language and definitions,” said Barbara Wendling, chairperson for the SAE J3016 Technical Standards Committee. 

The committee faced challenges putting together a “live’ document like J3016, especially at a time of such dynamism and competition in the technology. “The way we’re handling this inside of SAE is, J3016 is sort of the ‘constitution,’ if you will, of driving-automation definitions. There are other documents that have plenty of definitions – for example, J3131 that will be published shortly provides definitions and taxonomy for [automated driving] architecture,” Wendling told SAE Media. 

Other standards related to automated vehicles are in the works. They include a taxonomy-and-definitions document being developed by  the SAE Verification and Validations committee, and the J3164 standard coming out of the Maneuvers and Behaviors committee that also has new definitions. Wendling said terms and definitions are being expanded to help nail down scenarios and situations. “So, we’re trying to keep J3016 at its current high ‘constitution’ level and allow the other SAE task forces that are going into specific, deeper areas to formulate their own definitions consistent with J3016,” she said. “So far it seems to be working out fairly well.” 

A focus of the latest SAE-ISO version of J3016 (also called ISO-PAS 22736) is “it tells the world that we’re harmonized on the fundamentals of this,” Wendling noted. “It’s how we’re going to characterize this technology.”  The J3016 graphic was updated with some new trademarking guidance, but all taxonomy content remains unchanged, according to Justin Falce, SAE strategic communications manager. “The trademarking is so that SAE can better ‘own’ the levels,” he said. 

The latest version of the SAE J3016 Recommended Practice is available to download for free.  

Continue reading »
X