The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department of Transportation’s
(DOT’s) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) face similar
challenges regarding the regulation of autonomous systems powered by artificial
intelligence (AI) algorithms that replace the human factor in the
decision-making process. Validation and verification (V&V) processes
contribute to implementation of correct system requirements and the development
life cycle - starting with the definition of regulatory, marketing, operational,
performance, and safety requirements. The V&V process is one of the steps of
a development life cycle starting with the definition of regulatory, marketing,
operational, performance, and safety requirements. They define what a product
is, and they flow down into lower level requirements defining control
architectures, hardware, and software. The industry is attempting to define
regulatory requirements and a framework to gain safety clearance of such
products. This report suggests a regulatory text and a safety and V&V
approach from an aerospace engineering perspective assessing the replacement of
the human driver from the decision-making role by a computational system. It
also suggests an approach where aerospace guidelines can be used alongside the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard ISO 26262 in order
to define a viable and valuable framework for autonomous systems safety
clearance (or certification).
NOTE: SAE EDGE™ Research Reports are intended to identify and illuminate key
issues in emerging, but still unsettled, technologies of interest to the
mobility industry. The goal of SAE EDGE™ Research Reports is to stimulate
discussion and work in the hope of promoting and speeding resolution of
identified issues. SAE EDGE™ Research Reports are not intended to resolve the
issues they identify or close any topic to further scrutiny.