Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2022 - 25

Standards
George Nicols, an advanced technology standards engineer
at Toyota North America, points to the challenges
communicating the shared role between current ADAS
features and the driver.
complex configurations as we get into the higher
levels of automation. "
Where language meets development
Within engineering groups creating the technology,
there is little ambiguity as to where driver involvement
begins and ends. " I don't think we'd throw around
the term automated. Our discussion is whether the
driver is engaged or not, " explained Lee Aho, regional
business unit head for ADAS products for Hitachi
Astemo. " We say: 'Feet off; hands off; eyes off; and
then finally, mind off.' "
" If we say automated, that means different things
between you and I and the average guy walking around
on the street, " Aho noted. " If we say this stuff is automated,
somebody on the street might say, 'Hey, great. I can get in
the car and not have to do anything.' But somebody still
has to push the button. Let's take a silly example: paper
shredder. This is an automated piece of equipment. But
what happens if I get my tie stuck? There's got to be some
human oversight or intervention, somebody has to shut
the thing down before I strangle myself. "
Referencing the SAE Levels of Automation [https://
www.sae.org/binaries/content/assets/cm/content/blog/
sae-j3016-visual-chart_5.3.21.pdf], Aho added, " Level
5 is you get in the car and you tell it where you want
to go and it takes you there, you don't need to be
involved. But with Level 4, there is still the possibility
that the vehicle says, 'Hey, I'm looking at the conditions
around me and it's not safe. So, I'm transferring
Lee Aho, regional head for ADAS products for Hitachi
Astemo, explained that " automated " connotates different
meanings between engineers and the driving public.
control back to you.' You can't go in the back and take a
snooze when you've got Level 4 features engaged. Until
you get to Level 5, you're always going to be engaged
at some point with these features. "
Some Tier 1s have coined the unofficial, non-J3016
term " Level 2+ " to describe L2 ADAS that has been
given enhanced capability (with lidar in some cases),
to draw attention to their technologies, while further
muddying the public and media's understanding.
" I think we would say we're working on advanced
driving assistance systems [ADAS], " Aho stated. " But
the things that are employed in vehicles today and in
the near future, are still Level 1, 2 and Level 3 features.
What we do is work with the OEMs to see what kinds
of things they want, what kind of driver experience
they are trying to achieve. We offer the different pieces,
and we integrate them with the things that they already
have in the vehicle, to get toward this Level 5. "
The borders defining the levels of vehicle automation
are just as absolute, according to two engineering
executives at Magna. " When we think of something
autonomous, it's basically the vehicle operating under
all conditions without human supervision, " stated
Sharath Reddy, senior VP of Electronics. " Whereas
automated means the driver is in the loop. That's the
fundamental difference from Magna's perspective. "
" I think when the industry started using these
terms of 'self-driving,' 'autonomous,' 'automated,' I
think the maturity of the industry was not there, " he
said. " SAE with its 3016 standard has done a pretty
good job of laying out what Level 1 is, what Level 2 is,
etc. I think that has helped us define more clearly to
avoid any confusion. "
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
July 2022 25
George Nicols
Hitachi Astemo
https://www.sae.org/binaries/content/assets/cm/content/blog/sae-j3016-visual-chart_5.3.21.pdf
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2022

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