TRB Special Report 308: The Safety Challenge and Promise of Automotive Electronics Insights from Unintended Acceleration (2012) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 169-196
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From page 169... ...
6 Recommendations to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Preparing for the Electronics-Intensive Vehicle This report describes how • Increasingly software-intensive electronics systems are being used in automobiles to provide capabilities that are both related and unrelated to vehicle safety (Chapter 2) ; • Automotive manufacturers seek to ensure the performance of these electronics systems through preventive and fail-safe measures imple mented during product design, development, and manufacturing as well as through lessons learned from postproduction surveillance (Chapter 3)
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170 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics ETC suggest the potential for other electronics systems to become implicated in safety concerns, particularly as electronics systems assume more vehicle safety and control functions. In requesting these reviews, NHTSA tasked the committee with making recommendations on how the agency's regulatory, research, and defect investigation activities can be strengthened to meet the safety assurance challenges associated with the increasing use of electronics systems.
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 171 Box 6-1 Summary of Findings The electronics-intensive Automobile Finding 2.1: Electronics systems have become critical to the functioning of the modern automobile. Finding 2.2: Electronics systems are being interconnected with one another and with devices and networks external to the vehicle to provide their desired functions.
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172 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics Box 6-1 (continued) Summary of Findings Finding 3.2: Testing, analysis, modeling, and simulation are used by automotive manufacturers to verify that their electronics systems, the large majority of which are provided by suppliers, have met all internal specifications and regulatory requirements, including those relevant to safety performance.
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 173 Box 6-1 (continued) Summary of Findings ther the introduction of new regulations and vehicle capabilities aimed at mitigating known safety problems.
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174 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics Box 6-1 (continued) Summary of Findings other obstructions that entrap the accelerator pedal in a depressed position, and sticking accelerator pedals.
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 175 with one another, not only will safety assurance demands grow but so too will the challenge of building and maintaining public confidence in their safe performance (see Finding 4.1)
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176 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics investigation of floor mats as a possible cause of unintended acceleration and its influence over Toyota in recalling millions of its vehicles for pedal entrapment demonstrate ODI's wider scope of interest and authority. NHTSA's vehicle safety research programs are focused on supporting agency decision making, particularly regulatory decisions (see Finding 4.4)
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 177 which to assess their cause. The remainder of this section discusses the implications of the proliferation of electronics systems for NHTSA oversight and engagement.
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178 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics have established robust and carefully followed safety assurance systems. These assurance systems can be examined in depth by FAA because aircraft manufacturers must apply to the regulatory agency for approval to build a new aircraft type.
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 179 but many manufacturers selling vehicles and automotive equipment in the United States appear to be intent on following its guidance in whole or in large part. Whether widespread industry adherence to a process-based standard like ISO 26262 will lead to safer-performing vehicle electronics will depend to a large extent on the adequacy of existing manufacturer assurance processes and the degree to which manufacturers change their processes in response to the standard's guidance.
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180 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics Box 6-2 Candidate research and Analysis to inform industry Safety Assurance processes • Review state-of-the-art methods used within and outside the automotive industry for detecting, diagnosing, isolating, and responding to failures that may arise from multiple, intermit tent, and timing faults in safety-critical vehicle electronics systems. • Survey and identify the sources, characteristics (e.g., levels, frequency range)
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 181 Box 6-2 (continued) Candidate Research and Analysis to Inform Industry Safety Assurance Processes • Examine the implications of electronics systems for the means by which automotive manufacturers are complying with the intent of the FMVSSs, how changes in technology could both aid and complicate compliance with the regulations, and how the regulations themselves are likely to affect technological innovation.
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182 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics view, because NHTSA cannot be expected to hire and maintain personnel having all of the specialized technical expertise and design knowledge relevant to the growing field of automotive electronics. As a starting point for obtaining access to this expertise, the committee recommends that NHTSA convene a standing technical advisory panel comprising individuals with backgrounds in the disciplines central to the design, development, and safety assurance of automotive electronics systems, including software and systems engineering, human factors, and electronics hardware.
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 183 mation is conveyed at all. Because the VOQ does not have a field in which consumers can choose from a common set of vehicle behaviors such as hesitation, high idling, and degraded braking, ODI analysts must review and manually categorize the relevant information conveyed in each complaint narrative.
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184 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics participants regularly submit device performance information to FDA's surveillance program, including reports on safety-related "close calls." This industry-assisted monitoring network may provide a model for NHTSA to follow in obtaining more detailed information on the safety performance of electronics (see Finding 4.7)
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 185 ODI's surveillance and investigation capabilities, particularly the detail, timeliness, and analyzability of the consumer complaint and early warning data central to these capabilities (Recommendation 3)
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186 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics Box 6-3 Candidate research and Analysis to Support oDi Capabilities and Functions • Examine modifications to the VOQ that can make it more use ful to ODI analysts and investigators by facilitating the ability of consumers to convey the vehicle conditions and behaviors they experience more precisely and by making the informa tion more amenable to quantitative evaluation. Consideration might be given to new features in the online questionnaire, such as drop-down menus with condition choices or upload ing capabilities, that can make the questionnaire easier to complete and provide drivers more opportunity to convey details on the vehicle and its condition and behavior.
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 187 Box 6-3 (continued) Candidate Research and Analysis to Support ODI Capabilities and Functions • Examine how the data from consumer complaints of unsafe experiences in the field can be mined through electronic means and how the complaints might offer insight into safety issues that arise from human–systems interactions.
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188 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics requirements but recommends that this research be a precursor to a broader human factors research initiative in collaboration with industry and that the research be aimed at informing manufacturers' system design decisions (Recommendation 5)
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 189 Box 6-4 elements of a Strategic planning process In the committee's view, the following are fundamental to strategic planning: • Involved and supportive management led by senior staff, • Cross-functional participation from throughout the organi zation, • Third-party facilitation and other influential outside partici pants, • The expectation that the process will take time and effort and not be completed in one or two meetings, and • Regular updates made available to the public and decision makers. The following are key process elements: • Define the agency mission and principal agency activities • State goals and desired outcomes • Assess the external environment.
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190 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics Box 6-4 (continued) Elements of a Strategic Planning Process – How can technology changes, such as the Internet and its instant communications, be expected to affect the agency, positively and negatively?
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 191 Box 6-4 (continued) Elements of a Strategic Planning Process • Articulate the agency's key strategies and objectives going forward: – The agency's role and responsibilities redefined or reiter ated clearly – An explicit strategy developed for how to adapt to the expected changes in technology – Goals set for the size, nature, and content of the research programs in support of agency goals – Goals set for the size and capabilities of the staff in its vari ous units such as ODI – Improvement objectives established for the databases used in the work of the agency – Metrics defined to indicate the agency's performance of its defined roles and responsibilities guiding critical decisions concerning matters such as the most appropriate agency regulatory approaches and associated research and resource requirements.
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192 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics as they seek to improve their safety assurance processes. Such strate gic planning would provide an opportunity for NHTSA to consider the nature of the research it undertakes, what should be encom passed by its research in the future, and the methods that are used to identify key research needs.
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 193 The technical and economic feasibility of V2V, V2I, and other intelligent transportation systems are not considered in this study. However, it is difficult to imagine NHTSA accommodating their introduction without adapting its regulatory, research, and investigation processes.
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194 || The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics Box 6-5 (continued) Recommendations to NHTSA and ODI to ensure that (a)
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Recommendations to NHTSA || 195 reFereNCe Abbreviation NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA.
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