Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2022 - 23

Standards
A plot showing expanding advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) technologies illustrates the complexity of overlapping technologies
involved in vehicle automation.
Such cooperation among the world's standards
organizations underscores the importance of having
a common tongue, as was the document's availability.
" I would give quite a bit of credit to SAE as an organization
for making that document freely available as
an SAE standards document. That is extremely rare, "
explained George Nicols, an advanced technology
standards engineer at Toyota Motor North America,
who has been involved with SAE J3016 since 2017. " I
think that speaks to just how valuable and significant
the document is for distribution through the public. "
Media inflection point
The commotion generated by the New York Times
article was likely the first of many misguided descriptions
around the language of autonomy but could be
seen more hopefully as an inflection point for the
industry on which to build. Describing any SAE Level
2 system as " self-driving " could inspire dire consequence,
but few automotive technologies are initially
understood by the driving public (see " ABS " ).
Ed Niedermeyer, the former communications
director at PAVE (Partners for Automated Vehicle
Education), was active in social media channels during
the dust-up with the New York Times. The organization
he represented is a coalition of nearly 90 members
(including SAE International) tasked with educating
the public on autonomous vehicle technology. " The
AV industry talks about the need for public trust, "
Niedermeyer explained. " In order to earn the public's
trust, we all have to be speaking the same language,
and actually understand what we're talking about.
Education is a fundamental aspect of that, and how
PAVE thinks about its role in this ecosystem. "
Niedermeyer noted that because all stakeholders
are watching the technology evolve in real time, challenges
will be ongoing. " The New York Times situation
is a blatant example of the challenges-remaining part of
it, " he said. " What that situation shows is the challenge
is not just getting people aligned around language or
even basic distinctions. Even more simple than the
SAE levels is helping people understand - including
the very intelligent and worldly folks who work at the
New York Times - that these differences matter. "
He said that when the factual error containing
potential safety implications was pointed out to the
Times' editors, their reaction was ' " Americans don't
understand the difference between driver assistance
and autonomous driving, and we don't expect them to.' "
" That sort of attitude really galvanized us at PAVE,
because it shows we have not done enough to explain
why this distinction matters, " Niedermeyer said. " I think
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
July 2022 23
Hitachi Astemo
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2022
