Levels of Autonomous Driving

Why this section is important for you

Autonomous vehicles are classified into different levels. Depending on the autonomy level, the demands on safety, reliability, and redundancy vary significantly. To design a suitable sensor fusion system in your job role, you need to understand which autonomy level is required and the implications for the development process.

Courtesy - https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/automated-vehicles-safety . To have a deeper understanding of the Levels of Autonomous Driving, refer to the table titled "What does this mean for you as a driver?" at the provided link.

• For many years, ADAS products such as forward collision warning (FCW) or adaptive cruise control (ACC) were the only systems available that provided at least some degree of automation in a selected number of driving situations (e.g. on highways, in cities at low speed).

• Tesla has been one of the first companies world-wide to introduce a system into the market that promised a high degree of autonomy, the Autopilot. On the SAE chart however, this system is only at level 2, that means the driver must remain engaged and should monitor the environment at all times.

• The step to level 3 is a large one as the driver is no longer required to monitor the environment, even though he must be able to take back control at all times. From a legal viewpoint this means that the responsibility for the driving task is with the car and thus with the manufacturer. This is why we do not see a large number of commercially available vehicles with level 3 systems on board yet. Several manufacturers have announced such systems but at the time of writing, we do not find them in the market. The reason for this is three-fold:

→ Such systems must be built reliable enough to minimize the number of faulty decisions. Engineers usually solve this problem by adding a large number of sensors to the car, which makes such systems (very) costly. The fear of lawsuits arising from accidents results in an intentionally reduced availability of systems, for example by limiting the driving speed or the scenario (e.g. only in traffic jams on highways with clearly visible lane markings at speeds below 60kph). The readiness of the driver to take control of the vehicle can not be guaranteed at all times. There are many situations in which this is not possible due to human reaction times and alertness levels. → Therefore, many experts believe that level 3 systems will only be a transition step to more advanced systems which are operating on levels 4 and 5. At those levels, the vehicle is capable of performing all driving tasks and the „driver“ is not required to take control. Obviously, such systems will require a strong engineering effort to guarantee driver and road user safety at all times.