11 August 2020
BSI, in its role as the UK’s National Standards Body, publishes the first taxonomy for specifying the Operational Design Domain (ODD) of an automated driving system (ADS). It is the third publication from the CAV Standards Programme, backed by the government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and delivered in conjunction with the Department for Transport, Innovate UK and Zenzic.
The new standard, PAS 1883 Operational Design Domain (ODD) Taxonomy for Automated Driving Systems (ADS) – Specification, is intended to help enable safe automated driving by defining a common language for describing the operating conditions, such as the environment and driving situations, an automated vehicle has been designed to function in.
PAS 1883 provides common taxonomy for describing the ODD of an automated driving system, including the type of roads, traffic and weather. The new taxonomy will help organizations trialling and testing automated vehicles to describe their vehicles capabilities in a reliable and accurate way. This will also allow developers of CAV technologies to communicate the capabilities of their vehicles clearly and consistently to the likes of road authorities, insurers and consumers.
Nick Fleming, Head of Mobility and Transport Standards at BSI, said: “Standardization provides the opportunity for emerging industries to come together to develop common languages that will help grow confidence, awareness and collaboration. The new standard, PAS 1883, provides a common taxonomy for those involved in CAV development to talk about the capabilities of automated driving systems and the environments they operate in consistently. This can in-turn help support safer trialling, testing and deployment of CAVs on our roads.”
Iain Forbes, Head of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, said: "Connected and self-driving vehicle technology has the potential to level up transport across the nation by making every day journeys greener, safer, more flexible and more reliable. However, none of these benefits will be realised without public confidence that connected and self-driving technology is safe and secure. That is why BSI's CAV Standards Programme is so important to the world-class work CCAV is leading on assurance, with PAS 1883 in particular supporting better communication and collaboration within the sector to enable even safer trialling and deployment of the technology."
This free to download standard has been produced by a steering group1 of technical experts made-up of organizations from the UK CAV eco-system, including automated vehicle developers, testbeds, road authorities and with WMG, University of Warwick acting as technical author. It has attracted global industry views and is helping to inform the development of a related international (ISO) standards on the topic.
It is intended to be used alongside other BSI standards developed to support CAV trialling and testing, such as PAS 1881 Assuring the Safety of Automated Vehicle Trials and Testing – Specification.
BSI is interested in hearing from organizations who may be implementing the new PAS and are interested in contributing to a case study to share their experiences. Please contact cav@bsigroup.com
1Steering group members
ADA Innovation Lab Limited, Arup, AXA XL, Burges Salmon, Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), Connected Places Catapult, Loughborough University, Oxfordshire County Council, Five, Met Office, National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Nominet, Ordnance Survey, TRL, Wayve Technologies Ltd, WMG, University of Warwick, Zenzic.
