The Operation Phase as the Currently Underestimated Phase of the (Safety and Legal) Product Lifecycle of Autonomous Vehicles for SAE L3/L4 – Lessons Learned from Existing European Operations and Development of a Deployment and Surveillance Blueprint

Advanced Autonomous Vehicles (AV) for SAE Level 3 and Level 4 functions will lead to a new understanding of the operation phase in the overall product lifecycle. Regulations such as the EU Implementing Act and the German L4 Act (AFGBV) request a continuous field surveillance, the handling of critical E/E faults and software updates during operation. This is required to enhance the Operational Design Domain (ODD) during operation, offering Functions on Demand (FoD), by increasing software features within these autonomous vehicle systems over the entire digital product lifecycle, and to avoid and reduce downtime by a malfunction of the Autonomous Driving (AD) software stack. Supported by implemented effective management systems for Cyber Security (R155), Software Update Management System (R156) and a Safety Management System (SMS) (in compliance to Automated Lane Keeping System (ALKS) (R157)), the organizations have to ensure safe and secure development, deployment and operation to fulfill legal requirements. Based on senior expert interviews from relevant AD stakeholders, a blueprint is developed to support the deployment and scalability of AD systems. Relevant roles for the operation will be presented and current gaps in the industry, regulation and academia are highlighted.