Safely Advancing Vehicle Automation On Roads (SAVOR)

Vehicle automation solutions cannot address all real-world scenarios and as such require a supervisor to be able to monitor and take control when it is appropriate to do so. The Automated Vehicle (AV) business case partly hinges on the reduction in operational costs – closely linked to labour. It is therefore essential to provide a remote monitoring and teleoperation solution that allows an operator/supervisor to be responsible for multiple vehicles. To achieve this there needs to be a clear understanding of the AV and RMTO requirements that ensure the safe operation of automated vehicles in public environments.

SAVOR explores the key requirements to apply remote monitoring and teleoperation to automated vehicles as an essential safety measure in achieving L4 operation on public roads. These requirements apply both to the vehicle automation stack, the communications and the remote monitoring and control interface. The project includes essential human factors and technology assessments to provide recommendations that may be used by DfT, CCAV, and other industry stakeholders when deploying their solutions.

The human factors study will be undertaken in a simulation environment to identify key usability targets that will be used to configure the evolved AV stack for testing on the CAVWAY Testbed and subsequently on the Midlands Future Mobility Zone (MFMZ) Testbed in Coventry. The project will define a prioritised set of strategies for the AV to “get safe”; the end states will be assessed as hazards to inform the target response times for remote operators to be able to identify problems and respond. E.g. AV pulls over and stops on the left curb is safer than stopping in the middle a lane.

The integrated AV & RMTO solution will be initially tested on IDIADA’s CAVWAY facility with the “get safe” strategies deployed on Conigital’s automated Ford Ranger and Coventry University’s automated Nissan ENV200. IDIADA will facilitate testing with its automated Kia Nero. Further on-road assessment will be undertaken on the MFM Testbed in Coventry.