AV and ADAS Testing from Out of the Box

A new tool from Foretellix guides engineers through virtual systems testing to minimize the risk of getting dangerous predeployment bugs.

For self-driving vehicle systems to gain the full confidence of the public, the mobility industry and government regulators, OEMs have to prove that AVs (and those equipped with enhanced SAE Level 2 automated-driving systems) are safer being driven by software than by humans. But a recent string of unfortunate events in 2020 involving automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems is causing concerns.

Early in the year, Volvo recalled 750,000 cars from 2019 and 2020 production over a fault in its AEB. Engineers discovered a software glitch that prohibited the system from activating under certain temperatures. Then in June, in Taiwan, a Tesla Model 3 operating in Autopilot mode slammed into an overturned tractor-trailer rig at 70 mph, reportedly due to software issues related to the car's forward-facing sensor array and an AEB that failed to react. This incident was followed in August when the American Automobile Assoc. (AAA) released results of a blockbuster study that painted a worrisome picture of the real-world performance of active driver-assistance systems (see sidebar).