Safety seminar with Prof. Koopman successfully concluded
Today, we had an outstanding day at SAFER! Experts shared their thoughts on the remaining safety challenges for deploying self-driving cars on the roads, together with about 60 network members onsite and many more online.
The morning began with Professor Philip Koopman, who argued that we need entirely new ways of thinking about safety – humans can never foresee all possible edge cases that may occur. Measuring safety is incredibly complex, and new definitions are needed. Key challenges include dealing with surprises in the environment, enforcing operational limits, interpreting rules correctly, and navigating legal and ethical constraints. Simply reinterpreting existing terms might not be enough. Organisations aiming for minimal compliance are likely to fall short, and safety terms should reflect what they truly mean.
Prof. Koopman also discussed the definition of “acceptable safety,” highlighting that it’s not just about a positive risk balance. Safety must meet ethical constraints, such as risk distribution, avoid negligent driving, and follow legal requirements. Acceptability must be evaluated across all stakeholders – including the auto industry, insurance, regulators, legislators, road users, and consumer advocates. He concluded that compliance with regulations does not necessarily equate to safety, as this is a more holistic issue.
Oana Robescu, Product Regulation Specialist at Volvo Autonomous Solutions, provided a clear picture of where Volvo stands and the steps forward, from constrained areas to public roads. She emphasized the importance of balancing the need for safety with innovation, which can be achieved through greater harmonization, sharing, listening, and cooperation. Uniformity is key, and more knowledge needs to be integrated into software development.
In the afternoon, we deepened the discussion with a panel moderated by Professor Christian Berger. The panel consisted of:
- Prof. Philip Koopman, Carnegie Mellon University
- Oana Robescu, Volvo Autonomous Solutions
- Peter Janevik, CEO, AstaZero AB
- Vivetha Natterjee, Senior AD Technical Specialist for Autonomous Driving, Zeekr Technology Europe
- Prof. Miroslaw Staron, University of Gothenburg.
The day also featured a poster session, where the Best Poster Award was given to Cagri Kaya from Chalmers University for his research on Efficient Exploration for Maneuver Identification in Automotive Data.
Many thanks to all that contributed to knowledge building today!
