Transport and Covid-19: responses and resources

Safer Roads with Automated Vehicles?

Safer Roads with Automated Vehicles?

This report examines how increasing automation of cars and trucks could affect road safety, and which security vulnerabilities will need to be addressed with the rise of self-driving vehicles. It applies the principles of the Safe System approach and relevance of Vision Zero for road safety to the wider discussion on vehicle automation. It also takes into consideration the security of the cyber-physical system associated with automated driving, including a definition of relevant system boundaries and future-proof minimum requirements for safety and security.

Policy Insights

  • Reinforce the Safe System approach to ensure automated vehicles are used safely.
  • Apply Vision Zero thinking to automated driving.
  • Avoid safety performance being used to market competing automated vehicles.
  • Carefully assess the safety impacts of systems that share driving tasks between humans and machines.
  • Require reporting of safety-relevant data from automated vehicles.
  • Develop and use a staged testing regime for automated vehicles.
  • Establish comprehensive cybersecurity principles for automated driving.
  • Ensure the functional isolation of safety-critical systems and that connectivity does not compromise cybersecurity or safety.
  • Provide clear and targeted messaging of vehicle capabilities.

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