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from the but-officer-my-car-meets-government-standards dept.
According to this news item, one of the holdups to the wide usage of autonomous cars is a lack of regulations that can be used to certify the control systems: http://www.automotivetestingtechnologyinternational.com/industry-blogs.php?BlogID=1973
Regulatory challenges
The influence of legislation around the world on the way tests will be performed in future is relatively small. For example, there are as yet no binding standards for driverless cars. This makes it a very complex task to make cars reliably safe for the global market. However, there are of course calls for safety levels, backed up by defined safety standards such as ASIL. They are a pre-requisite for planning reliability for investments in necessary new testing equipment. Crucial for the breakthrough of autonomous driving will be the speed at which global legislation can introduce the appropriate regulations. The sooner this happens, the faster the requirements for validating a completely driverless car can be implemented.
(bold added by submitter)
The same author suggests that the well established V-model for system development, validation and verification might be short-cut in some way to meet aggressive timing requirements -- which sounds like a great recipe for disaster to this AC. Have any SN readers had any involvement in this area?
A general reference on V-models is an interesting read. According to the article, it started at Hughes Aircraft in the 1960s (Los Angeles).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @07:55PM (3 children)
"one of the holdups to the wide usage of autonomous cars is a lack of regulations that can be used to certify the control systems"
Which of course doesn't mean they work or are safe but merely "certified".
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 19 2017, @08:11PM
Precisely.
If you comply with a "certification", you can transfer liability on the authors for not covering the corner case in which your car kills 5 people.
Autonomous cars are improving every day, but lawyers have sharpened their quills waiting to sue deep-pocketed manufacturers (on behalf of poor victims, of course).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @09:23PM (1 child)
Yep, government-certified must be OK (NOT). From some limited contact with the employees at US DOT / NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety) it was pretty clear to me that it won't be government employees that write any regulations. They might get some help from gov't associated labs and test tracks (there are several) or outside contractors.
All the real talent with a clue about understanding these systems is going to be inside the car companies. So how is this chicken-egg situation going to play out?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by archfeld on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:48AM
Query the actuaries and the insurance companies. The hold the financial 'hammer' and wield the funding that elects the officials that will make or break the early adoption of these technologies.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge