Uncertainties in Onboard Algorithms for Autonomous Vehicles: Challenges, Mitigation, and Perspectives

Abstract

Autonomous driving is considered one of the revolutionary technologies shaping humanity’s future mobility and quality of life. However, safety remains a critical hurdle in the way of commercialization and widespread deployment of autonomous vehicles on public roads. Safety concerns require the autonomous driving system to handle uncertainties from multiple sources that are either preexisting, e.g., the stochastic behavior of traffic participants or scenario occlusion, or introduced as a result of processing, e.g., the application of neural networks. Thus, it is crucial to analyze the sources of uncertainties and quantify the risks associated with them, including the propagated risks that accumulate in the decision-making system. In this context, this paper provides an overview of uncertainty challenges and state-of-the-art techniques for mitigating these challenges. We argue that the uncertainties mainly originate from two aspects: 1) the external traffic environment, and 2) the internal autonomous driving system. Specifically, this paper first analyzes the safety challenges caused by the uncertainties and summarizes their sources. In addition, the corresponding techniques that mitigate and quantify the risk of uncertainties are presented. Finally, research perspectives are highlighted to facilitate future studies for guaranteeing the safety of autonomous vehicles.