RATIONALE & INTRODUCTION:

Automated driving system (ADS) manufacturers, developers, and operators need to provide clear information on their safety approach to stakeholders. Explainability to diverse audiences helps build trust in statements from these organizations towards the shared value of safety. A defined list of core safety topics can help set expectations when communicating deployment and use-case specific AV safety information. The topics listed in this best practice are implementation agnostic and broadly applicable.

Trust in manufacturers, developers and fleet-managed operators’ statements requires explainability to diverse audiences, however sharing a full safety case would be challenging for a number of reasons, including:

• Supporting documentation may be specific to the ADS developer, manufacturer, or operator and require specialized knowledge to understand.
• Supporting documentation may be extensive, including a large volume of technical output, possibly including test results and process documentation which may require the use of proprietary tools to access or interpret.
• The proprietary nature of certain information, along with sensitivities associated with the potential for inaccurate extrapolations of shared or reported data.

This best practice provides a common language and framing to summarize core ADS safety topics and information as a steppingstone to share with industry stakeholders. This document is not intended to suggest any specific communication structure, formatting, precise composition, or modality. It is intended only to provide a set of topics or elements that speak broadly to core ADS-DV safety.

This best practice supports public and private organizations in preparing for and deploying ADS-DV systems. It is intended to garner discussion, foster understanding, and promote acceptance of ADS-DVs.

RATIONALE & INTRODUCTION:

Automated driving system (ADS) manufacturers, developers, and operators need to provide clear information on their safety approach to stakeholders. Explainability to diverse audiences helps build trust in statements from these organizations towards the shared value of safety. A defined list of core safety topics can help set expectations when communicating deployment and use-case specific AV safety information. The topics listed in this best practice are implementation agnostic and broadly applicable.

Trust in manufacturers, developers and fleet-managed operators’ statements requires explainability to diverse audiences, however sharing a full safety case would be challenging for a number of reasons, including:

• Supporting documentation may be specific to the ADS developer, manufacturer, or operator and require specialized knowledge to understand.
• Supporting documentation may be extensive, including a large volume of technical output, possibly including test results and process documentation which may require the use of proprietary tools to access or interpret.
• The proprietary nature of certain information, along with sensitivities associated with the potential for inaccurate extrapolations of shared or reported data.

This best practice provides a common language and framing to summarize core ADS safety topics and information as a steppingstone to share with industry stakeholders. This document is not intended to suggest any specific communication structure, formatting, precise composition, or modality. It is intended only to provide a set of topics or elements that speak broadly to core ADS-DV safety.

This best practice supports public and private organizations in preparing for and deploying ADS-DV systems. It is intended to garner discussion, foster understanding, and promote acceptance of ADS-DVs.

SCOPE:

This best practice outlines broadly applicable safety information for ADS-DVs. It provides a list of recommended topics, examples where applicable, suggestions of content that could be included for said topics, and relevant references and industry standards. Communicating safety information with the general public is outside the scope of this document. For this, readers are directed to company Voluntary Safety Self-Assessments (VSSAs) and other publicly available safety information. This information is intended for proactive safety discussions and does not address specific crash documentation or incident reconstruction connected to existing reporting obligations. These are available through other means, such as NHTSA’s Standing General Order.