Towards common ethical and safe 'behaviour' standards for automated vehicles

Area of Science:

• Engineering
• Human Factors
• Ethics of Technology
• Standardization

Background:

• Human error causes most road crashes, making automated vehicles (AVs) a promising safety solution.
• Lack of standardized 'safe driving behavior' for AVs risks inconsistent and unpredictable traffic interactions.
• Current AV safety research is fragmented across disciplines, hindering a unified approach.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify gaps and challenges in establishing shared safety standards for AV behavior.
• To review the state-of-the-art in AV safety across ethics, safety science, and standardization.
• To propose a framework for interdisciplinary research to advance AV safety.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of AV safety in ethics of technology, safety science (engineering & human factors), and standardization.
• Analysis of ethical considerations, user perception, data-driven approaches, and actor responsibilities.
• Review of current safety patterns, metrics (surrogate measures of safety - SMoS), and thresholds for key AV use cases.

Main Results:

• Significant knowledge gaps exist within individual disciplines related to AV safety.
• A lack of interdisciplinary common understanding of safety hinders progress.
• Existing research on safety patterns and metrics for mixed traffic, AV-pedestrian/cyclist interaction, and control transitions reveals inconsistencies.

Conclusions:

• An interdisciplinary approach is essential for developing robust AV safety standards.
• A proposed framework outlines opportunities for collaborative research with shared goals and methodologies.
• Facilitating knowledge transfer between sectors is key for responsible AV integration into traffic.