Provides human concepts of responsibility and care as measurable parameters.

At the World Knowledge Forum held in Seoul, Amnon Shashua, CEO of Mobileye and Vice President at Intel, presented a method to prove the safety of autonomous vehicles. He unveiled a formal mathematical formula designed to ensure that self-driving vehicles operate responsibly and do not cause blameworthy accidents.

Mobileye, an Intel subsidiary, is a leader in automation technology and the world's largest supplier of cameras for ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems). Based on years of successful experience in automotive automation and the evolution from ADAS to fully autonomous driving technology, Professor Shashua and his colleague Shai Shalev-Shwartz developed a mathematical formula that can bring certainty to questions regarding responsibility and blame when accidents occur in unmanned autonomous vehicles.

The Responsibility Sensitive Safety model (hereinafter RSS model) developed by them provides specific and measurable parameters for human concepts of responsibility and attention. It also defines a “Safe State” in which an autonomous vehicle cannot be the cause of an accident regardless of the movement of other vehicles.

In his keynote, Professor Amnon Shashua urged industry and policymakers to “collaboratively establish standards to misdefine accidents” when human-driven vehicles and autonomous vehicles cause accidents. He stated that all current rules and regulations are based on the idea that there is a driver capable of controlling the vehicle, and that new parameters are needed for autonomous vehicles.

Professor Amnon Shashua stated, “The ability to define fault is key. Just like the best drivers in the world, autonomous vehicles cannot avoid accidents caused by uncontrollable behavior. However, the most responsible, cognitively superior, and prudent drivers very rarely cause accidents due to their own faults. In particular, autonomous vehicles, with their 360-degree field of vision and lightning-fast reaction times, have a very low probability of causing accidents.” He added, “The RSS model will ensure that autonomous vehicles operate only within a framework defined as ‘safety,’ based on clear fault definitions agreed upon across the industry and regulatory authorities.”

Sam Abuelsamid, Senior Researcher at Navigator Research’s Traffic Effectiveness Program, stated, “Since regulators and policymakers around the world are struggling with how to manage the deployment of autonomous vehicles without hindering innovation, I believe using a common, open method to evaluate the efficacy of the technology would be a good starting point.” He added, “The RSS model proposed by Mobileye will serve as a foundation to initiate this conversation. At least through the evaluation method

"It provides a good framework for the decision-making process within the control system without being constrained by specific technology," he said.