Understanding the Move to Intended Functionality in Autonomy

The autonomous revolution is disrupting the automotive market and bringing new opportunities to a range of actors, from automotive and tech companies to local and national governments. However, major challenges loom, including the certification of the safety of cars that increasingly think and act for themselves, even as they are more connected than ever to the internet.

This paper briefly surveys the responses to these challenges from the global technical and regulatory communities. Special attention is paid to ISO 21448, currently under development. ISO 21448 attempts to outline how to deal with Safety of the Intended Functionality (SOTIF) of the electronic guts of self-driving cars. The standards committee is trying to cast a wide net – the better to deal with all the electrical and mechanical systems coming from an increasingly diverse supply chain. The standard will outline a long list of scenes, scenarios and triggers that in some combination invoke a human and AI response “behind the wheel.”

The paper was prepared for a September 2018 workshop convened by the Centre of Excellence for Testing and Research of Autonomous Vehicles – Nanyang Technological University (CETRAN), the Singapore Manufacturing Federation – Standards Development Organisation (SMF-SDO) and the Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA).

Read more in this whitepaper by Joseph Dailey (Global Functional Safety Manager, Mentor product suite), Gwen Van Vught (Director of the Mobility Center, TASS International, a Siemens Business) and Ajinkya Bhave (Engineering Manager, Siemens Industry Software).