Six things we learned at Automotive IQ’s Safety and Security Week

Very few opportunities exist to bring the leading experts in vehicle safety and security together.

But that’s exactly what took place at the Automotive IQ Safety and Security Week of workshops and conferences that happened in Munich last week. Our live blog of the event gives you an idea of the topics covered, but here’s a run-down of our key takeaways from the event:

1 – Remember the customer

Dyson’s head of functional safety, Ireri Ibarra, was involved in a number of ISO 26262 and SOTIF events. In a panel discussion around how to make ISO 26262 and SOTIF fit together, the conversation naturally explored key technical aspects of both standards.

However, Ibarra also emphasized the importance of remembering what ISO 26262, SOTIF and all other standards are for – ensuring the customer travels in a safe, secure vehicle above all. There’s no harm in remembering the real reason the huge amount of deeply technical work in these fields takes place.

2 – Collaboration is key

Interesting feedback from ZF’s Tomislav Lovric about the event in general revealed the benefit of coming together to debate all aspects of self-driving car safety. As a speaker at the ISO 26262 event, Lovric told us:

“[If I had not attended], what I would have missed is the possibility to meet all the experts from the different domains all together in one place. The ISO 26262 event is valuable on its own, but to have all four conferences going on together is a great opportunity.

To hear first hand from [PSA functional safety senior expert] Nicolas Becker talk about SOTIF, the OEM view, validation targets and future plans was particularly insightful.”

3 – A millimeter makes the difference

National Instruments presentation, by Nicholas Keel, revealed the importance of precision in the calibration of virtual radar testing. It’s a given that this would include being able to simulate different radar positions, as there are plenty of mounting options out there.

However, the system he presented also allows the possibility of simulating different paint colors, materials and even paint thicknesses with millimeter calibrations possible to ensure accuracy.

4 – Disputing the Trolley game

We’ve touched on the go-to ethical example of the trolley game in the past, where participants have to select the ‘least bad’ outcomes in what a runaway trolley runs into. However, in his presentation to The SOTIF Conference delegates, Rolf Johansson, senior safety architect at Zenuity, made the point that driver’s ed teaches you not to get into a situation where you need to choose between killing a grandma or a dog in the first place.

Johansson co-wrote a paper on the subject four years ago, although his presentation didn’t detail how the decision-making power of a highly automated car must still surely come from an engineer’s programming decisions to begin with, just as a human learns the difference between right and wrong (or ‘least wrong’). Food for thought that a better example is required if consumer acceptance is to be gained.

5 – Testing for elks

Volvo engineer Albert Lawenius gave Testing for ADAS and Self-Driving Cars delegates an insight into the firm’s virtual and test-track activities, with the latter including the use of dummy elks crossing the path of a moving car at a hefty 40kmh to help refine AEB and automated vehicle behavior. Lawenius added that the test team had clocked real-life elks running alongside prototype vehicles at 56kph!

In addition to its hefty 60-year database of crash data, Lawenius also revealed that Volvo dispatches an accident investigation team for every crash within 100km of Volvo’s home city of Gothenburg to gather information, and that it does this around its other global bases, too.

6 – Time is money, but at what cost?

While not the easiest subject to tackle in a presentation, given the sensitivity of the subject, ethical hacker Marc Heuse talked during the Safety for Semiconductors conference about the difficulty of ensuring a car’s electronic systems are safe from unwanted attack, while also being able to meet the deadlines of new product development.

He noted that it’s a growth area of the industry, so security experts are in demand right now - anyone wanting to make some solid money now knows where to apply their skills!

And one last thing...

Heading back to Automotive IQ's base in Berlin, we took a slightly unusual form of transport back to Munich airport.

The Maserati Quattroporte isn't your typical choice of for-hire vehicle, but it makes an interesting change from the usual Mercedes sedan. The car was the first Maserati taxi in the city, although two others have since appeared, and is owned by Mr Ceker.

He's clocked up 86,000km so far, mostly doing trips between the airport and city up to eight times per day. His wish was to provide another level of service to his customer, and he plans to add five Quattroportes to his fleet. The fare in his current car is exactly the same as any other Munich taxi, and you can see more images like those above on his Instagram page.