A paradigm change in road safety evaluation: from hypothetico-deductive testing to designing safety systems

Abstract

Automobile industry is going through important changes with the rise of connected vehicle paradigm. In this context, traditional performance evaluation procedures are becoming obsolete or insufficient. This is particularly the case for road safety evaluation models since new information and communication technologies engender new types of vulnerabilities. This paper claims that traditional hypothetico-deductive evaluation paradigms are no longer adequate to assess road safety. To complement this traditional approach, we present an alternative perspective based on design theory originating from engineering design field. We illustrate the use of design methods in this context. More generally, we argue that a design based approach to road safety evaluation will allow integrating evaluators early in the process, and to give them a set of new tools coming from design theory in order to design better experiments with indicators of safety are better adapted to changing safety situations.