A Model for the Design of Automated Vehicle Event Data Recorders

When vehicle accidents occur, investigators rely on event data recorders for accident investigations. However current event data recorders do not support accident investigation involving automated or self-driving vehicles when there is state information that needs to be recorded, for example ADS modes, changes in the ODD that the vehicle operates under, and the various states of vehicle features such as intelligent cruise control, automated lane changes, autonomous emergency braking, and others. In this paper, we propose a model to design new types of event data recorders that supports accident investigations involving automated vehicles when there is state information to be recorded. The model is generic enough to be adapted to any automation level and any set of automated vehicle functional features. The model has been instantiated to a specific ADAS system.