Autonomous Driving

Autonomous or self-driving vehicles are being increasingly treated as a trailblazing technology of the future. The question is, what does »autonomous« really mean, and what will it take to make autonomous driving safe and efficient?

Most new automobiles are already automated in certain areas, beginning with standard-equipment driver assistance systems (DAS). In the future however, we will see completely autonomous vehicles on the streets.

Autonomous vehicles are usually separated into five levels based on the Society of Automotive Engineers classification system:

• Level 1 driver assistance: This already includes automobiles with conventional cruise control systems.
• Level 2 partial automation: The vehicle can change lanes or brake on its own in situations defined by the manufacturer. Parking assistants are also part of level 2 functions.
• Level 3 conditional automation: Highly-automated vehicles can overtake, brake and accelerate on their own depending on the traffic situation. During this time, drivers can even read the newspaper, although they still have to be able to take control of the vehicle again if the system issues an alarm.
• Level 4 high automation: At this level, the vehicle takes over all driving functions. This includes tasks such as entering a highway, activating turn signals and overtaking. At this level, drivers can even sleep while the vehicle operates autonomously.
• Level 5 full automation: With autonomous vehicles, the passenger assumes no driving tasks and has no opportunity to intercede in the driving situation. The vehicle handles extremely complex driving situations such as autonomously traversing an intersection. These vehicles can also operate without passengers.

For a long time, only level 2 partially automated driving assistants were permitted in Germany. However, this has changed in recent years. In 2017, an amendment to the Road Traffic Act (StVG) made it possible to approve vehicles with level 3 driving functions, provided the function is used exclusively in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications. The first highly automated driving function from a German car manufacturer has now been approved since 2022. However, the system may only be activated under certain conditions, such as only on motorways and only during daylight hours.

The first legal foundations for level 4 and 5 autonomous driving are also in place. For the time being, however, autonomous driving without a physically present driver is only permitted in defined and approved areas of operation. This applies, for example, to shuttle buses on company premises or at trade fairs.

The fields of application for automated or autonomous vehicles are multifaceted. When the movement of people is involved, there are two conceivable scenarios:

• shared autonomy through automated or autonomous taxis and buses
• owned autonomy in the form of privately-used autonomous automobiles

Apart from the movement of people, autonomous driving will impact a wide range of other sectors of the economy, such as in agriculture, where autonomous vehicles and machines could reduce the demand for labor and increase efficiency.

Autonomous trucks could take over hazardous or monotonous tasks at freight ports or mines for example, or transport goods via highway convoys more efficiently from A to B without drivers.

Apart from the previously-mentioned legal questions that autonomous driving raises, a highly crucial issue is system dependability. When it comes to using autonomous systems in road traffic, human lives are at stake. Autonomous driving’s greatest potential can be exploited only if the vehicles operate error-free.

When it comes to autonomous driving, the greatest challenge involves generating and processing information, and then reacting accordingly.

Today, autonomous vehicles function reasonably well in test situations since the conditions are severely restricted and thus easy to manage. A key issue however is how to design autonomous vehicles so that they operate dependably even in difficult environments, such as normal road traffic.

If the system is not in a position to create a precise model of the driving situation in bad weather conditions for instance, the vehicle cannot be allowed to continue to operate. The system must be able to monitor itself and evaluate its own state and level of dependability while continuing to operate under these restrictions.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS offers solutions that permit autonomous vehicles to function dependably, in spite of difficult conditions or errors, thus ensuring that no one is exposed to danger. The goal is to create a thoroughly verified, intelligent software architecture for the automobile - a so-called resilient cognitive system.

Fraunhofer IKS validates artificial intelligence (AI)

Autonomous driving is based in large part on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and neural networks.  Because there is no possibility for human validation of the machine perception and the resulting decisions when using these technologies, other ways have to be found to analyze the accuracy of the machine perception. The Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS conducts research into methods for validating the perception.

 One approach is the structured safety analysis, in which a logical model of the system architecture is created to represent the signal flows and their quality. The performance and limitations of the sensors are also described in the system architecture. The system then examines how critical these identified weak points are, including the associated risks, and then determines which critical situations lead to safety-relevant errors.

Another approach is the intelligent cross validation of existing internal and external sensor data. This involves comparing the data from a sensor with data from other types of sensors, each of which have different weak points. The data from the different sensors, such as a front-end camera and a lidar system, can then carry out a cross-check.

In order to validate autonomous driving systems, the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS also conducts research into adaptive software architectures. These architectures independently adapt to changing conditions in the environment, thus allowing them to proactively deal with interference factors.

The software-based functions in self-adapting software architectures are flexibly designed so that they can be shifted or operated without any restrictions, even when other parts of the system are experiencing problems. This type of software architecture is referred to as a fail-operational architecture.

In cases where the system fails to retain its full functional capabilities through adaptation, the function can be gradually abated through so-called graceful degradation, thus ensuring that the system remains safe and stable. In autonomous vehicles, this approach guarantees the flawless execution of safety-critical functions such as staying in the lane, even when components such as a camera fail.

Real-time connected traffic models for increased safety, efficiency and resource conservation

Another aspect of making autonomous driving safer is so-called Car2X communication, which requires equipping the vehicles and infrastructure with sensors. The goal is to create a cooperative ecosystem for road traffic, in which infrastructure and position data can be shared via edge and cloud computing. Cooperative driving and Car2X communication thus increase the efficiency, safety and sustainability of the traffic system. In this area, the activities of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS are focused on the dependability of the systems, which can be easily and effectively increased with infrastructure data since the infrastructure sensors have a better overview of the critical traffic points than the individual traffic participants. Technically speaking however, that means the infrastructure has to be viewed as another undependable source of sensors in the E2E architecture.