The Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium (AVSC) bolstered its international reach by welcoming Volkswagen Group of America as the latest member of the consortium. This recent addition will further support the AVSC in developing best safety practices around which automated vehicle (AV) technology can be responsibly developed and adopted ahead of broad deployment.
By joining the consortium, Volkswagen Group of America will have a hand in providing expertise to the team by sharing collective learning and perspectives of the entire Volkswagen group including Audi AG, VW AG, Autonomous Intelligent Driving (AID) GmbH, MOIA (mobility service subsidiary), as well as other divisions to provide helpful insight towards the objectives of the consortium.
Volkswagen Group of America intends to be deeply involved in North American and European AV testing and validation. In July, the auto group invested $2.6 billion in capital and assets into Argo AI, the Pittsburgh-based autonomous vehicle startup, including contributing its Autonomous Intelligent Driving (AID) GmbH company to be part of Argo AI and become its European headquarters.
In addition to Volkswagen Group of America, the growing consortium also includes SAE International, Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Uber ATG, Daimler and Honda. Consortium members are working on the development of a series of safety principles for SAE Level 4 and 5 automated driving systems focusing on testing before and during operation of AVs on public roads; data collection, protection and sharing; and interactions between AVs and other road users.
The AVSC recently published its first written best practice for In-Vehicle Fallback Test Driver (IFTD) (safety operator) selection, training and oversight procedures.
