Abstract
Autonomous vehicle (AV) is regarded as the ultimate solution to future automotive engineering; however, safety still remains the key challenge for the development and commercialization of the AVs. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the development status of AVs and reported accidents is becoming urgent. In this article, the levels of automation are reviewed according to the role of the automated system in the autonomous driving process, which will affect the frequency of the disengagements and accidents when driving in autonomous modes. Additionally, the public on-road AV accident reports are statistically analyzed. The results show that over 3.7 million miles have been tested for AVs by various manufacturers from 2014 to 2018. The AVs are frequently taken over by drivers if they deem necessary, and the disengagement frequency varies significantly from 2 × 10−4 to 3 disengagements per mile for different manufacturers. In addition, 128 accidents in 2014–2018 are studied, and about 63% of the total accidents are caused in autonomous mode. A small fraction of the total accidents (∼6%) is directly related to the AVs, while 94% of the accidents are passively initiated by the other parties, including pedestrians, cyclists, motorcycles, and conventional vehicles. These safety risks identified during on-road testing, represented by disengagements and actual accidents, indicate that the passive accidents which are caused by other road users are the majority. The capability of AVs to alert and avoid safety risks caused by the other parties and to make safe decisions to prevent possible fatal accidents would significantly improve the safety of AVs. Practical applications. This literature review summarizes the safety-related issues for AVs by theoretical analysis of the AV systems and statistical investigation of the disengagement and accident reports for on-road testing, and the findings will help inform future research efforts for AV developments.
Highlights
With the demands on reducing traffic accidents, congestion, energy consumption, and emissions, autonomous driving technology has been recognized as one of the promising solutions to these critical social and environmental issues
The autonomous technology is still not mature enough to handle very complicated scenarios before some key issues could be solved, including the effective detection and prediction of hazardous behaviors caused by other road users, and the correct decision made by the autonomous system. e effective detection of hazards caused by the other road users is crucial for the Autonomous vehicle (AV) to make active decisions to avoid oncoming accidents. e AVs should decide if they need to take actions that may violate traffic regulations to avoid potential fatal or injurious accidents
The levels of automation defined by different organizations in different fields are summarized and compared. e definitions of automation levels by the Society of Automotive Engineer (SAE) are widely adopted by automotive engineering for AVs
Summary
With the demands on reducing traffic accidents, congestion, energy consumption, and emissions, autonomous driving technology has been recognized as one of the promising solutions to these critical social and environmental issues. Erefore, a comprehensive understanding of the definition of automation levels for vehicles, types of potential and reported accidents, and current status of on-road testing will be beneficial for the AV technology development. The automation levels of the vehicles depend on the complexity of the autonomous technology applied, the perception range of the environment, and the degree of a human driver or vehicle system get involved in the driving decision, which is closely related to the AV safety. E automation system is capable of driving automatically under all conditions, and the human driver may be able to control the vehicle It can be seen from the various definitions of automation levels by different organizations that human operators and vehicle systems can be involved in the driving processes at different degrees. Erefore, theoretical analysis of the potential AV errors will be urgent to understand the current AV safety status and to predict the safety level in the future
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
