The past has proven that companies' technology and innovations are versatile and just because the original intent of the technology or innovation was to solve one problem, as time goes by, and new challenges arise, the same solution can be used to solve other unforeseen problems.

As USA Today reported, in 1942, during World War II, the U.S. military was in need of a durable adhesive tape that could maintain its bond under harsh field conditions. The military asked Johnson & Johnson Co. to develop the idea and initially called it duck tape for its waterproof nature.

Civilians began to utilize the product heavily during the postwar housing boom, when it was used to seal central air and heating systems. Duck tape was used in ductwork so much that it was renamed to duct tape and recolored to match the silver metallic color of HVAC systems.

During the height of COVID-19, we saw examples of corporate agility as car manufacturers began building ventilators and sporting good manufacturers started sewing masks for the healthcare industry. We will continue to see this nimbleness moving forward as companies' technologies, originally scoped for one industry, find their way into processes supporting Industrial IoT - a term designating the efforts that bring together machines, cloud computing, analytics, and people to improve performance and productivity.

Aurora Labs' Self-Healing Software, currently being leveraged by automotive manufacturers, is a solution that is also bringing value to Industrial IoT companies. Aurora Labs uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to enable these companies to become proactive about the quality, safety and security of their connected devices and systems.

This is of increasing value for time-sensitive industrial IoT devices such as security cameras, autonomous warehouse robots, and production line machines that are required to have 24-hour uptime, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Aurora Labs' unique Self-Healing technology is the predictive maintenance solution for software, enabling pre-error detection and remote OTA updates with zero downtime -- both key features in guaranteeing continuous quality, safety and security.

Business Insider quotes Maribel Lopez, founder and principal analyst at Lopez Research, saying, “Although Aurora Labs is targeted at vehicle manufacturers if Amazon Web Services (AWS) were to acquire it, its technology would not just be used for cars. Instead, it could be expanded as a platform play, meaning that AWS could use its AI technology for other parts of its business - its own growing logistics robot fleet, for example.

The global industrial IoT market is expected to reach approximately USD 751.3 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 23.88% from 2017 to 2023. By component, the global industrial IoT market is segmented into hardware, software and service. Software is expected to be the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period, with a CAGR of 25.65%. Software plays a major role in the development of industrial IoT systems.

However, for this to happen, according to global consultancy firm Bain, "Device makers and other vendors of industrial and operational technology need to dramatically improve their software capabilities—not a historical strength for most of them."

The crossover from automotive to Industrial IoT is a natural extension of Aurora Labs' Self-Healing Software in support of various scenarios. In manufacturing alone, having the visibility into line-of-code behaviour to predict and fix errors in security, plumbing, lighting and production line systems will prevent downtime, which costs firms at least $100,000 an hour, according to a 2019 survey by ITIC.

'One Plus One Equals Three' is the title of a 1927 German silent film as well as a book by Dave Trott on creative thinking and creative writing. 'One Plus One Equals Three' is also a phrase that illustrates what is happening within the automotive ecosystem.

Over the last few years and moving forward, automotive companies are partnering with businesses outside of the automotive industry to deliver offerings that bring two disparate technologies together to create a third solution that reinvents business models, generates additional revenue streams and cuts costs.

According to BearingPoint/Beyond, a European, independent management and technology consultancy:

If automotive and transport companies want to thrive in a digital, mobility-enamored world, partner ecosystems must become a vital component of their reinvented business models. This will allow them to put a greater emphasis on customer relationships as the motor for innovation to create compelling new digital services formed through partner ecosystems which not only meet customer needs but drive them forward - while also being harder for competitors to simply copy.

Unexpected partnerships are bringing the automotive industry together with insurance, entertainment and hospitality companies, just to name few. For example:

• Ford has a deal with Liberty Mutual Insurance offering insurance discounts to customers who drive a Ford connected vehicle. On a consumer opt-in basis, Liberty Mutual is able to access data from Ford's connected cars to assess driving habits and decrease auto insurance premiums based on good driving.
• At CES this year, the electric vehicle manufacturer, BYTON, announced a wide range of partnerships bringing fresh content to an in-vehicle 48-inch display. ViacomCBS and Accuweather are two entertainment/information content companies working with BYTON to deliver an offering that enhances the driving experience.
• Uber has a deal with Hilton Worldwide enabling guests to set ride reminders, request vehicles to and from nearby locations as well as explore local scenes via a digital guide powered by Uber within the HHonors loyalty app.

Credit: Center for Automotive Research

For more than 100 years the auto industry was based on one company building a vehicle, one person buying it and one person driving it. Those days are over. One, single company cannot provide the new types of services and solutions desired by today's consumer.

While collaboration is key to the successful disruption of the industry, it is not without challenges. Once companies agree to partner, the complexities to success range from go-to-market strategies, branding, revenue splits, and team coordination. Core to the success of the partnership is its fluidity through planning and execution as well as ensuring a common lexicon, common measures, and common processes to help companies from vastly different industries integrate, communicate and prosper.

The majority of these services and joint mobility offerings require integration of software components into complex, multi-supplier systems. The mindset of fluidity, dynamic environments and consistent measurement and processes is also true for software integration and the dependencies and compatibility challenges that arise with software integration.

From a pure business perspective, the stronger the dependency between colleagues, supply channels, and infrastructure the higher the probability change will cause challenges to the integrated service. Having insight into how these elements interact will help predict and prepare for change assuring a successful launch of the unified offering.

Similarly, the stronger the dependency between functional components and software lines-of-code, the higher the probability change in one component will have a carry-on effect on other functional components in the system. Having insight into how these elements interact will help predict and prepare for change, again, assuring a successful launch of the unified solution.

Aurora Labs is the company leading this new dimension of providing transparency into the relationships and behavior between functional components in complex and dynamic automotive systems. The actionable data created enable the automotive ecosystem to predict, fix and validate software behavior, the foundation of all new mobility systems and services.

Many companies have mandated a 'work from home' (WFH) policy as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. To some, working at home is a blessing.  To others, it can be difficult due to a lack of structure and social interaction, and in an increasing number of countries, having the kids at home.

Below are a few tips that will help with the transition from office to home. Before this conversation, however, we want to thank all of those who do not have the option to work from home. Specifically, the first responders, doctors, nurses, healthcare operations personnel, scientists, pharmacists, people managing the drive-through testing, grocery store workers, food and parcel delivery folks, and our government agencies and representatives forming the guidelines to help us through this tumultuous time.

For those of you who are working from home to ensure our global economies remain as viable as possible, here are a few WFH Tips.

1. Create a workspace

Find some place in your home that is considered your workspace and everyone in the house knows that you are "at work" when in that space. Preferably a room with a door and a window. Let your family members know what time you have scheduled conference calls and remind them to be a bit extra quiet during those times. (You may want to tape your conference call calendar to the refrigerator!)

2. Make a schedule

Work is an activity, not a place. Weave your work activity into your daily routine. Set the alarm for at least an hour before you start working in order to give yourself a "normal morning." Make breakfast, check the news, take a shower, get dressed (don't stay in your sleepwear all day!). Take time for a lunch break away from your desk. Ending the work day can be tricky because most of us with a mobile phone never really end the work day. This part probably won't change too much.

3. Take a drive or walk around the neighborhood before starting work

Take a drive or walk around the neighborhood before work. Get some fresh air to kick the day off. Listen to whatever you normally listen to on the radio to get in the work frame of mind.

4. Use conferencing technology

The first transcontinental video call happened on April 20, 1964 using Bell's Picturephone service at the World's Fair in New York City. Conferencing technology has come a long way since then! Take advantage of voice, video and data collaboration technologies to stay in touch with colleagues, partners, customers and prospects.

Tip #1: Be prepared for a video call at all times! Use your laptop camera to test lighting and make sure your background is work appropriate.

Tip #2: If you don't want to be too surprised, be sure to close the physical camera cover or put a band aid over your camera that you can easily remove when a video call comes in.

5. Stay fit

Keep exercising. Make up your own programs and check with your gym to see if they are offering online classes. Also, look at sites like Sworkit.com for classes ranging from yoga and pilates to strength, core and cardio.

6. Take breaks

Take breaks throughout the day to clear your mind and gain perspective on the project you are working on but resist the urge to snack!

7. If you have pets, bring them into the office and talk to them like a colleague

Let your dog sleep by your feet or your cat snooze on your desk. At least for part of the day. Pets make great colleagues and they always think you are right!

8. Clear the air

If a meeting goes bad or a situation didn't turn out the way you hoped, don't get paranoid about it. In the office, you would go to your colleague/friend and hash it out and walk away feeling better. Don't stew on it - call that colleague/friend if needed.

9. Don't despair, it's only temporary

Life is about turning lemons into… Some of the steps above may help you enjoy the flexibility and productivity gains that can be achieved by working at home. And don't forget to wash your hands!

A watershed describes an area of land that contains a common set of streams and rivers that all drain into a single larger body of water. History shows that for new technologies to be successfully deployed, there needs to be a watershed moment where everything from powerful chipsets, to advanced networks, standards and interoperating components need to come together at the same time to truly leverage the power of new solutions and change the way people live, work and play.

This reality was recently reported in The Wall Street Journal's Decade of Disruption supplement. In Joanna Stern's article, First the Smartphone Changed then Over a Decade, it Changed Us, she quotes AT&T's former Vice Chairman, Ralph de la Vega, saying "When one piece of technology changes, it's a big deal, but when two or three things change that are complementary at the same, it's really disruptive."

For the mobile phone industry, only when the network technology (3G), operating systems (iOS and Android) and the phones' processing power, battery life and storage capacity reached a tipping point did mobile phones become ubiquitous to our way of life with consumers watching videos, receiving mails, playing, shopping, banking and surfing online all from the computer in their hand. This watershed moment also made over-the-air (OTA) updates truly beneficial for smartphone users. At this point in time, all of the firmware and applications - the entire phone - could be updated and continuously maintained throughout the lifetime of the phone.

Once OTA solutions were ubiquitous within the mobile phone industry, the OTA vendors set their sights on the automotive market. The car became the next device to update. Today, most of the over-the-air updates are keeping the non-critical head unit, infotainment system and telematics control unit updated. With the exception of Tesla, that built their vehicle platform as a software platform from the ground up.

New technologies comprising today's watershed moment for software as the predominant technology in cars -- the technology rivers and streams that are aligning -- are electrification, 5G, computer vision and software solutions based on advanced AI and machine learning. This convergence will ensure that automotive manufacturers can update more than the head unit, infotainment system and telematics control unit. This watershed moment will result in the ability to run software diagnostics and updates for the safety of critical and non-critical components alike throughout the entire vehicle - end-to-end, bumper-to-bumper, hood-to-trunk, bonnet-to-boot.

This watershed moment also offers the opportunity for automotive manufacturers to redesign their entire E/E architecture and adopt new centralized systems that manage in-vehicle software components as micro-services, ensuring flexibility, cost savings, software quality, safety and security.

Smart Summon is a new feature Tesla has installed with an over-the-air (OTA) update as part of its version 10.0 software. Smart Summon enables the car owner to summon his or her car from a parking space within 200 feet. A few days after the update was delivered, a video surfaced of a Tesla Model 3 being summoned from a public parking lot, driving through a stop sign and getting pulled over by the police.

The Tesla owner said to the police officer "I wasn't driving it. The car ran the stop sign. So, no ticket. "The police officer was understandably perplexed. Who should he issue the ticket to? The owner wasn't driving the car when it made the traffic offence? The car? Maybe Elon Musk himself?

In this instance, no harm came to any pedestrians or other cars, however, the question of liability remains. Earlier this year, executives from Ford and Bosch came together with executives from AllState and Nationwide as the two industries - automotive and insurance - work through how to insure connected and autonomous cars and figure out who is liable for what.

While in many cases the hardware and sensors may be to blame for a vehicle malfunction, according to a report from Stout, in 2018, nearly 8 million vehicles in the US were affected by software-based defects. This is a higher total than the previous five years combined and three times more than any previous year. Both the insurance and the automotive industries - which haven't had major changes or new business models in decades - are being disrupted with the ushering in of connected cars, autonomous cars and mobility services. Who is responsible when an autonomous car crashes? The 'driver' in the car? The owner of the vehicle? The vehicle manufacturer? The supplier of the autonomous driving technology?

Too often the question of liability is framed as a 'blame game' by either the regulators or the insurers, to find the entity that can be shouldered with the cost after the fact. However, the focus of liability should not be on pinning the blame but rather on taking proactive responsibility so that crashes do not occur in the first place.

Understanding of automotive software is going to be the difference between those automotive manufacturers that maneuver through and succeed in this liability storm. Software is entering the car from several entities - the automotive manufacturer's software; suppliers' software and software created from the open-source community. The goal of the vehicle manufacturer should be to ensure that there are technologies and solutions in place to enable transparency into which software is actually running in the car and how the software functions are behaving, to be able to understand the behavior of the software, to be able to detect software malfunctions and to be able to fix them before they affect the driving experience leading to a liability situation.

Connected cars, mobility services and self-driving vehicles are driving a dramatic rise in the amount of software in the car and promise a shift in vehicle control away from the driver and toward the vehicle. The same shift may occur in liability for harm caused by vehicle crashes and related events. Automotive manufacturers need to adopt new in-vehicle software management technologies and develop new business models to be prepared to take on the liability responsibility.

Everyone knows someone with a disability, especially a driving disability that makes it unsafe to get behind the wheel. It may be an elderly parent, a friend with special needs, or a family member that has experienced a serious injury.

For years, the automotive industry has promised that connected and autonomous vehicles, as well as new mobility services, can provide more efficient transportation to those without a disability. But in the wake of the increasing adoption of these technologies, the industry also an obligation: To make transport more accessible and realize more independence and chances for the disabled with better access to basic services like healthcare and better access to employment.

The disabled market also is substantial. In the United States, for example, around 53 million adults have a disability, which is around 22 percent of the adult population. About 13 percent of adults have mobility problems and 4.6 percent have vision impairments.

In Germany alone, 7.8 million people live with a severe disability - many of them unable to drive a car. At the same time, 7.5 billion Euros have been spent on patient transport services - more than ever. Safe and secure autonomous vehicles in the form of configurable pods are a chance to enable those 7.8 million people better access to mobility and at the same time reduce the costs for patient transport.

However, there still remains one problem: The new autonomous technology needs to be safeguarded by a secure back-up plan in case the technology fails. Normally, this security back-up would be the driver, who can intervene and take over controls. But people with disability might not be capable of maneuvering the vehicle themselves.

Self-Healing, In-Vehicle Software Management capabilities of connected and autonomous cars that enable the vehicle to self-correct when a system malfunctions are crucial for all passengers - both those with disabilities and those without. Only if the vehicle is able to automatically detect problems and "heal" them, can everyone benefit from the new world of mobility. This is still a few years off however it is our obligation to build systems that are inclusive, and only then will consumers gain the level of trust for this changing world of transportation to become a reality.

With all the excitement around autonomous vehicles lately, you would expect that consumers are ready to buckle up and embrace full autonomy. On the contrary, there is a surprising amount of caution amongst drivers when it comes to self-driving cars.

According to a study conducted by AAA last year, 73 percent of American drivers report that they would be too afraid to ride in a fully autonomous vehicle - and that number is up from 63 percent in 2017. Furthermore, that same study found that 63 percent of U.S. adults reported that they would feel less safe sharing the road with an autonomous vehicle while walking or riding a bicycle.

How can we expect the entire world to adopt autonomous vehicle technology if there are high levels of distrust within the U.S. alone? Trust is a crucial component - and the first step - when it comes to the widespread use of autonomous vehicles. Autonomous driving will only become mainstream if drivers and pedestrians feel that they can fully trust the vehicle to function correctly.

What we can learn from the past - Trust and Technology

It is interesting to look at how elevators transformed the way people get from the first floor to the penthouse and how autonomous vehicles will transform how people get from point A to point B on the highways and back roads.

There are similar "trust" factors regarding both elevator and autonomous vehicle adoption. The elevator technology itself was not the deciding factor for people to adopt elevator usage. The first elevators were installed in England in the 1830s. However, early elevators used rope- and belt-driven systems that would often snap resulting in injury and death.

It wasn't until 1854 - 24 years after the technology was introduced - when Elisha G. Otis introduced a safety brake using a spring action system. At the 1854 World's Fair in New York City's Crystal Palace, Otis rode the elevator intentionally severing the cable. The safety brake stopped the elevator. The brake is considered the key in gaining public confidence in elevators.

We are in a similar situation today with autonomous vehicles. The major automotive manufacturers, major technology companies and hundreds of start-ups are working on technology to make autonomous vehicles a reality. Key to the adoption of the autonomous vehicle will be the technology that keeps the software safe and guarantees a driving experience that people trust.

Self-Healing Software Delivers Trust

This trust in autonomous vehicles starts with drivers understanding and believing that the software in the car works correctly, is secure, and is safe from cyber-attacks. Only then will the masses adopt self-driving vehicles. That means that the software must be functioning to the best of its ability.

The well-documented growth in the amount of automotive software eliminates any question about the importance of automotive software management. Using new technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, is required to deliver a Self-Healing Software solution that can detect a software problem, automatically roll-back to a safe software version and efficiently update the software.

Technology changes and advances - the safety mechanisms required for people to adopt technology - are timeless. Learning lessons from 1854, we know that trust is a key element for technology adoption and Self-Healing Software is to the vehicle what the brake was to the elevator.

OTA is a well-known term and the impact of over-the-air updates is a major story line in influential publications including The Wall Street Journal, Automotive News, The Drive, the Verge, Engadget and Forbes. In the last two weeks, both GM and BMW made headlines discussing plans to embrace OTA updates as a strategic solution to differentiate their offerings and remain competitive with new features and functions.

Our world is about to get even more interesting as concepts including homologation and type approval become common discussion points in our daily business meetings. Homologation and type approval are not new terms or concepts to the automotive industry. The terms refer to the process that consists of country-specific regulations for vehicle approval.

Homologation and type approval are becoming more significant and more complex as cars evolve. No longer is a car designed, built, certified and sold. Now vehicles receive updated software-based functionality throughout the vehicle lifecycle. The question being asked by the authorities is: 'How to maintain type approval for devices that are constantly evolving?'

This topic has been discussed, and global regulations have been recommended by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which includes members from Europe, North America and Asia. They are expected to be ratified by the end of 2019 and entered into law by the national regulation bodies in 2020.

According to the UNECE WP.29 position paper, an update to the vehicle's type approval will be needed for all software updates unless the software update is only fixing bugs or applying a security patch. WP.29 also states that if the new software functionality only affects a limited amount of installed vehicle software, the tests required to receive amended type approval will also be limited.

So how do the auto manufacturers maintain conformity with the regulation in the most cost-efficient manner, while not leaving themselves open to concerns of liability?

This week, with the introduction of Auto Validate, Aurora Labs is leading the charge to help auto manufacturers adapt to the new dynamics of the type approval process in addition to liability and warranty concerns. Auto Validate is a Line-of-Code Intelligence machine learning product that creates software functionality relationship maps to compare software code from version-to-version. Auto Validate assigns a unique digital thumbprint to changes in existing functionality. This offers evidence that a specific bug-fix, or cyber-fix did not add new functionality and new type approval certification is not required. In addition, this process can be used to document which specific systems have been affected by a software update minimizing the amount of testing that is required for type approval certification when new functionality has been added to the vehicle.

Auto Validate will help the automotive manufacturers in three distinct ways:

1. Streamline type approval process - Auto Validate will help automotive manufacturers streamline the type approval process by making it easy to pin-point exact tests required, if any tests are required at all, provide evidence for regulatory authorities, save time and decrease costs.
2. Minimize liability concerns - Auto Validate will create a digital thumbprint of vehicle software that receives type approval and allow the auto manufacturer to easily compare the type-approved software with the in-vehicle software being sold to market. This minimizes liability concerns providing proof that the type approved software and the embedded software in the shipping vehicle are one-and-the-same.
3. Resolve warranty disputes - By comparing the digital thumbprint of a vehicle that is being investigated with the original digital thumbprint of the vehicle when it left the production floor, the auto manufacturer will be able to determine if the vehicle has been altered and tampered with in such a way that may void the warranty. Such deterministic evidence will be essential in resolving warranty disputes.

It is a great time to be part of the automotive industry. We at Aurora Labs are excited to be part of the transformation bringing smart, in-vehicle software management solutions into the car and working with the automotive manufacturers to successfully grow and bring new, trustworthy experiences to drivers and passengers around the globe.

In the last year, every conversation about automotive software - every speech, every blog and every presentation - all consistently highlight the growing amount of code in the car. With this increased amount of code comes more software bugs, more recalls and the risk of more hacks - both from black hat and white hat hackers.

This conversation is consistent across countries and regions. Where differences lie, however, are in how regulatory organizations hold companies and people responsible to fix the problem that caused the need for a recall.

The details on the different levels of responsibility will be reviewed in a moment. Before we get there, it is important to note that it is the contention of Aurora Labs that the responsibility should be taken away from the human being and the guarantee that the software gets to a safe state should be offloaded to Self-Healing Software and in-vehicle software management solutions.

Now, back to the regional regulatory story. U.S. law requires auto manufacturers to alert owners when a vehicle has a recall, so that owners can take their car to a dealership, where the defect will be fixed for free. However, there are no laws requiring the owners to actually follow through and have the defect repaired.

Under US federal law, the cost of recalls for cars 15 years old or less is covered by automakers. But despite the free repair of potentially dangerous problems, there are an estimated 46 million cars with unfixed recalls currently on the road. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Government Accountability Office, only 65 to 70 percent of vehicles subject to a recall are repaired within the 18-month period during which automakers provide recall completion data.

In the UK an estimated one in 13 cars is subject to an outstanding recall. This is a concern that has both the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and the Ministry of Transportation investigating ways to remedy the problem. One solution under consideration is taken from the German model which issues owners repeated warnings if their car has an outstanding recall. If the recall has not been fixed when tested for their biannual road worthiness test (or General Inspection as it is called in Germany), the car fails the test and cannot be driven on the road. The challenge here is to connect the car ownership database with the car maintenance systems to create a unified database of the vehicles VIN, their current HW and SW state, and their owners.

Enter OTA Updates. Forecasts predict that the growing amount of software in the car will reach 40% of the total BOM by 2025, and while hardware related recalls will require a visit to the mechanic, software recalls are remotely updateable (over-the-air, or OTA). While this method is far more efficient than a visit to the mechanic, here too there is no guarantee of a 100% completion rate. Current OTA update solutions transfer responsibility of the recall software update to the drivers by informing them of the update and requesting that they perform certain actions before initiating the update. Many drivers are either intimidated by the often technical nature of the messages and the actions required while others ignore the warnings under the miss-assumption that if it doesn't seem to be broken, it doesn't need to be fixed.

Aurora Labs' In-Vehicle Software Management solution approaches remote OTA updates with a novel approach. Using machine learning algorithms, the update file is generated in such a way that it can be installed with zero need for driver intervention and with zero downtime. This is the same user experience we have come to expect from consumer software such as our web browser and smartphone apps. The Chrome browser updates every 4-6 weeks without requiring user intervention and apps update daily. In the case of a vehicle recall, should it be deemed a mandatory recall, the vehicle will be able to self-update without requiring the driver to be part of the decision process, guaranteeing the vehicle continuously runs the latest, safest and most secure software.

As the industry transitions to autonomous cars and mobility services, the need to guarantee that the vehicle is always up-to-date will only increase. It is only natural that as Artificial Intelligence is used to enable self-driving cars, that it also enables self-healing vehicles.

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.