The Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring Systems, ASAM e.V., publishes a concept for a new safety standard for connected and automated vehicles. An operational design domain (ODD) is fundamental to the safety of connected and automated vehicles (CAV): it describes the specific operating conditions under which the CAV can be safely deployed. ASAM recently published the concept for a future standard for defining ODDs: “ASAM OpenODD” will specify a language concept and a machine-readable format so that the ODDs can be clearly defined and shared by different users. The aim is also to contribute to better cooperation between vehicle manufacturers and authorities and to speed up the approval of automated driving functions.
Safety is fundamental to the development of connected and automated vehicles (CAV) and the realization of automated driving (AD). On the one hand, this means that a strict validation process for AD functions is required. On the other hand, it is also necessary to define operating conditions under which a vehicle can be used safely. These operating conditions include parameters such as road type, weather conditions, traffic conditions, time of day and many others that can affect a CAV’s behavior. This safe operating area is defined in the Operational Design Domain (ODD). The ODD is therefore an important part of a vehicle’s safety concept and must be valid for a specific configuration of the automated driving function throughout its entire service life.
Test scenarios for car manufacturers
The ODD is important for the automobile manufacturer because it determines which scenarios a networked and automated vehicle is exposed to and therefore against which scenarios a driving function or the CAV must be validated. The ODD helps to focus the limited validation resources on the necessary and relevant scenarios. For example, if the ODD excludes driving speeds in excess of 50 km/h or driving on freeways, vehicle manufacturers can adjust their catalog of test scenarios accordingly and neglect tests at higher speeds on freeways.
Simulation-based testing
ODD definitions are particularly important for simulation-based testing. Standards are needed that allow stakeholders to exchange, compare and reuse ODD definitions. This is where ASAM OpenODD comes into play: The standard will provide a machine-readable format that can represent a defined ODD for testing in simulations and other machine-processing environments. In addition, the format is intended to be searchable, interchangeable, extensible, reviewable, and human-readable so that it can be used for all other post-processing steps as well. In this way, ASAM OpenODD will help ensure that ADAS and autonomous driving systems can not only be developed safely, but also quickly, efficiently and reliably.
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