Aurora Labs aligned with the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium

Earlier this month, SAE International announced that it is joining forces with Ford, General Motors, and Toyota to create the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium (AVSC). This consortium will look to create industry-wide safety standards for autonomous cars – something the industry certainly needs as the technology within it expands exponentially. The AVSC will also work with other organizations around the globe to develop these industry standards.

This consortium is excellent news for the automotive industry. Assuming that the AVSC recognizes the importance of maintaining the quality of the AV software throughout its lifetime and mandates that OTA updating be part of any AV system, our In-Vehicle Software Management solution could help OEMs in meeting those requirements. The possibilities are endless in terms of how our software can play an important role in what the AVSC is trying to accomplish.

And when we got to thinking about it, we realized that there are two common goals between the AVSC and Aurora Labs that will be crucial in moving this industry forward: safety and trust.

Safety is at the heart of this consortium – just as it is at the heart of our technology. Similar to how AI is at the core of the AV technology, here at Aurora Labs we believe that it is only natural that AI will also be used to autonomously cure vehicles from malfunctioning software, whether malicious or incidental. Self-Healing Software can enable vehicle software to detect anomalies in the software behavior and health and either on command or autonomously recover to its last known secure, certified and functional version without any downtime. This ensures that the AV stays functional at all times, creates a seamless experience for the driver/passengers and ensures the car is safe from any software anomalies.

Not only that, but trust largely underlies the goal of this consortium. In order for the innovation of autonomous vehicles to move forward, our society needs to trust that they will always work as advertised, safely and securely. Having industry-wide safety standards will help build this trust in consumers. Similarly, a goal of our Self-Healing Software is to build up driver trust in self-driving cars. Drivers must have faith that the technology in cars is continuously operating safely and securely before these vehicles will become widely adopted and commonplace in our society.

These shared goals ultimately come down to one focus: the people on the roads, whether they are behind the self-driving wheel, passengers or pedestrians. The AVSC is hoping to set industry-wide standards to make sure drivers have the most optimal, convenient and safest experience possible with self-driving cars – and this naturally also translates to pedestrian safety.

We are in the midst of an extremely innovative and exciting time for self-driving cars. Here at Aurora Labs, we’re looking forward to seeing what will come from this consortium and the positive impact it will have to make truly autonomous mobility a reality.