With the law on autonomous driving and the associated ordinance, it has been possible in Germany since June 2022 to grant operating permission to vehicles with automated driving function and to admit them to road traffic. For public transport, automated shuttle buses offer the opportunity to maintain the existing service despite a shortage of personnel and to close gaps in supply. The safety of vehicle occupants, other road users and third parties is a key concern in the operation of automated shuttle buses.
As part of the project RABus “Real laboratory for automated bus operation in public transport in urban and rural areas”, which is funded by the Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg, the operational reliability of automated shuttle buses (SAE Level 4) in public transport is being scientifically investigated.
In the implementation of automated driving, obstacle detection/avoidance is a safety-critical driving function. The number of possible scenarios in the real world is almost infinite, which makes the technical and systematic evaluation of automation function a challenge for developers, testers, and certification bodies of automated driving.
In this work, we present the state of the art in terms of obstacle detection and compares metrics for evaluating obstacle detection function. The technical evaluation of obstacle detection of a vehicle with automated driving function is shown using the example of the real labs in Friedrichshafen and Mannheim in the RABus project. For both cities, the infrastructural requirements in the operational design domain are surveyed. Current developments in the field of (international) standardization in the description of operational conditions/operational domains (including ASAM OpenODD) will be followed and evaluated for applicability.