Are Autonomous Vehicles Safe?

 e-TECH / IEC

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There is still some way to go before autonomous vehicles can be used safely in all situations and consumers are far from trusting their use. The IEC is helping to build a safety framework.

One of the world ‘s leading manufacturers of electric vehicles recently unveiled its plans for a Cybercab to great fanfare, highlighting the ongoing enthusiasm for driverless vehicles in many circles. However, safety concerns, both real and perceived, are threatening to stymie widespread market adoption. International standards are a way of helping to build trust in these new forms of transport.

Proponents argue that autonomous transport systems can enhance safety by significantly reducing the risk of human errors which are commonly due to drowsiness, distractedness or even drunkenness. But while it is a fact that robot vehicles do not get tired or sick and even less drunk, they have several safety issues they still have to confront.

What does the research say?

Results are mixed. A study published this year in nature communications found that self-driving cars had fewer accidents than human-driven ones in most normal driving conditions. But it also acknowledged that in less visible conditions, such as dawn or dusk, autonomous vehicles (AVs) were far more likely to have an accident than human-driven vehicles.

The study, which was conducted by researchers from the University of Central Florida, also found that while turning, self-driving cars were nearly two times more likely to have an accident than human-driven vehicles. “It is important to improve the safety of autonomous vehicles under dawn and dusk or turning conditions,” says Shengxuan Ding at the University of Central Florida and one of the experts behind the research. “Key strategies include enhancing weather and lighting sensors and effectively integrating sensor data.”

Things are not much better in the real world. Fatal crashes and near fatal incidents involving robotaxis have led to industry recalls from AV companies with the US regulator finding a “critical safety gap” linked to hundreds of collisions in one AV system. Despite what some would describe as a dismal record, most US states explicitly or implicitly allow testing of autonomous systems, with several of them even allowing commercial use. The European Union has also approved regulations for AVs that are now incorporated into laws of member countries.

IEC Standards to build trust

The IEC is preparing many of the standards which are related to the tech used for autonomous vehicles and  which ensure it is used safely. A series of standards published by the IEC technical committee that prepares standards for sensors, IEC TC 47, specifies the general requirements of power interfaces for automotive vehicle sensors. IEC TC 100 issues several standards relating to multimedia systems in cars, for instance specs related to the surround view system for cars.

Autonomous vehicles use machine learning to process large amounts of visual data in real time, enabling them to detect and avoid obstacles, pedestrians and other vehicles. ISO/IEC TR 24030 is a technical report published in 2021, which includes over 130 artificial intelligence (AI) use cases, from 24 application domains, including transport. The IEC and ISO committee which is developing standards for AI is currently revising the publication with new and updated use cases.

Keep on trucking

Driverless long-haul freight routes already exist, such as those between major metropolitan areas in Texas. So far, these vehicles have been piloted by licensed operators ready to step in if needed. But providers say they’re now ready to remove that human presence and achieve Level 4 automation, one step below full automation which makes a vehicle capable of driving itself under any circumstances.

One manufacturer testing its autonomous truck says it wants to ‘make roads safer at commercial scale’. “Anyone can do a proof of concept – anyone can do a demo,” says its spokesperson. “To put a truck on the road with redundancy built in is a completely different ball game. Safety is the primary metric by which we measure the progress of our product,” claims another autonomous truck builder.

Despite this publicized emphasis on safety by industry, the public remains unconvinced. A March 2023 poll found that drivers are increasingly apprehensive of full autonomous vehicles. Eighty percent of those polled in California in August 2023 said they were uncomfortable with the prospect of driverless trucks in their state. A survey from January this year found a staggering 93% of Americans had reservations about safety and technology malfunctions of self-driving cars.

Going underground

Autonomous  underground rail travel has been a reality for nearly 40 years. Over a quarter of the world’s metro systems have at least one fully automated line in operation. In Nuremberg, Germany, the driverless metro has carried more than 200 000 people a day since 2008. According to the Fraunhofer Institute, this demonstrates that self-driving trains increase passenger safety. While staff in a central control centre can intervene in an emergency, monitoring systems react faster than humans to unforeseen events, it says.  

Again, IEC Standards play an important role in ensuring these transport systems are safe. Different levels of automation are specified by IEC 62290-1. This IEC TC 9 standard establishes fundamental concepts for urban transport management and control systems. Grade of Automation 4, for instance, applies to metro trains that run automatically at all times, including door closing, obstacle and emergency situation detection. TC 9 also publishes IEC 62267, which specifies the safety requirements for automated urban guided transport.

Breaking the waves

In 2022, a Japanese car ferry was one of the first large vessels to navigate passage autonomously. The test was successfully repeated by a second passenger ferry and then a container freighter.

Prior to making its maiden voyage, the passenger ferry was sailed for six months along its route with a crew to collect data. The container freighter had a safety verification test conducted using a 3D simulator. Autonomous docking and undocking technology, autonomous collision avoidance routing and visual target ranging and imaging technology are being pioneered in Japan as part of a government goal to have half of the country’s fleet sailing autonomously by 2040.

Outside Japan, a luxury carmaker has been working to develop a full fleet of autonomous vessels as well as solutions for yachts. Pilotless navigation is claimed to reduce stress for crews by increasing operational safety as well as making shipping more productive and economical by relying on less staff.

Extensive trials and tests have been identified as a prerequisite for safe and successful Maritime Autonomous Ships and Shipping (MASS) traffic operation by the European Union. It has developed operational guidelines for MASS trials in which the maritime authorities of EU member states exchange information, partner on trials and improve risk assessment. This feeds into the International Maritime Organization (IMO) which is drawing up the first international regulation on autonomous ships. The MASS Code is expected to come into force from 2028.

Two IEC TCs deal specifically with the standards for maritime transport. The first one is IEC TC 18: Electrical installations of ships and of mobile and fixed offshore units, which cooperates with IMO where electrical systems on board ships are concerned. It publishes international standards in line with the International Convention on Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), an international maritime treaty which sets minimum safety standards in the construction, equipment and operation of merchant ships.

The second one, IEC TC 80: Maritime navigation and radiocommunication equipment and systems, has taken on the role of developing international standards for the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), an internationally agreed set of safety procedures and communication protocols used to increase safety and make it easier to rescue ships in distress.

Trust in autonomous vehicles has to grow if consumers are to adopt these new forms of transport. IEC Standards are playing an important role in helping to build that trust.