EP-4735830-A1 - METHOD OF ENHANCING VEHICLE SAFETY, METHOD OF CONTROLLING VEHICLE OPERATION, PROCESSING SYSTEM, VEHICLE, AND MACHINE-READABLE INSTRUCTION CODE

Abstract

To enhance safety of a vehicle (10) performing an automated driving function, at least one processing circuit (20, 30) determines one or several map feature(s) and one or several key performance indicator(s) that, if not present in map data (22), can lead to a map data induced malfunction of the automated driving function. The map data (22) is verified to comply with criteria that depend on the determined one or several map feature(s) and key performance indicator(s).

Inventors

• Pai, Vishwanath Nagnath
• ADEE, AHMAD
• HASANVAND, Milad

Assignees

• TomTom International B.V.

Dates

Publication Date

20260506

Application Date

20230630

Claims (16)

1. 1. A method of enhancing vehicle safety, the method comprising: determining, by at least one processing circuit, one or several safety-relevant map features and one or several safety-relevant key performance indicators, KPIs, of at least one of the one or several safety-relevant map features for an electronic map, wherein the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs are causal for safe execution of an automated driving function by a vehicle, wherein determining the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs by the at least one processing circuit comprises: identifying one or several map features that affect execution of the automated driving function; determining the one or several safety-relevant map features, comprising determining which of the identified one or several map features are causal for at least one malfunction of the automated driving function; establishing, for each of the one or several safety-relevant map features, one or several KPIs of the safety-relevant map feature causal for at least one malfunction of the automated driving function; and determining the one or several safety-relevant KPIs for the one or several safetyrelevant map features based at least on the established KPIs causal for the at least one malfunction; and ensuring, by a server system or by the vehicle, compliance of electronic map data to be used in the execution of the automated driving function with criteria that are based at least on the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs of the one or several safety-relevant map features.
2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the one or several KPIs causal for at least one malfunction comprises performing a causality analysis.
3. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the causality analysis comprises one or both of: a fault tree analysis, a Bayesian network analysis.
4. 4. The method of claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the automated driving function is performed based at least on sensor data and the electronic map data, wherein the causality analysis is performed under an assumption of fault-free sensor data.
5. 5. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein each of the one or several safety-relevant KPIs has an associated weight, and wherein the criteria are further based on the weight associated with at least one of the one or several safety-relevant KPIs.
6. 6. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein determining the one or several safetyrelevant KPIs based at least on the established KPIs causal for the at least one malfunction comprises selecting the one or several safety-relevant KPIs from a pre-defined KPI set.
7. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the pre-defined KPI set comprises accuracy, freshness, coverage, and completeness.
8. 8. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein ensuring compliance of the electronic map data with criteria that are based at least on the one or several safety-relevant KPIs comprises a verification that the electronic map data have the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs.
9. 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising selectively executing the automated driving function by the vehicle based on a result of the verification.
10. 10. The method of claim 8 or claim 9, further comprising preventing execution of the automated driving function if the electronic map data does not have the one or several safety-relevant map features and preventing execution of the automated driving function if the electronic map data does not have the one or several safety-relevant KPIs.
11. 11. The method of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising determining, by the at least one processing circuit, further safety-relevant KPIs causal for safe execution of one or several further automated driving functions by the vehicle.
12. 12. The method of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising using the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs for controlling one, several, or all of: a modification of the electronic map to conform with the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs; a distribution of updates of the electronic map; activation of the automated driving function; execution of the automated driving function.
13. 13. A method of controlling vehicle operation, comprising: performing the method of any one of the preceding claims to determine the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs; selectively activating the automated driving function in response to determining that the electronic map data has the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs; and controlling, by the automated driving function, at least one vehicle component.
14. 14. A processing system, comprising: at least one processing circuit operative to determine, for the electronic map, one or several safety-relevant map features and one or several safety-relevant key performance indicators, KPIs, of at least one of the one or several safety-relevant map features, wherein the one or several safety-relevant KPIs are causal for safe execution of an automated driving function by a vehicle, wherein the at least one processing circuit is operative to perform the following operations to determine the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs: identifying one or several map features that affect execution of the automated driving function; determining the one or several safety-relevant map features, comprising determining which of the identified one or several map features are causal for at least one malfunction of the automated driving function; establishing, for each of the one or several safety-relevant map features, one or several KPIs of the safety-relevant map feature causal for at least one malfunction of the automated driving function; and determining the one or several safety-relevant KPIs for the one or several safety-relevant map features based at least on the established KPIs causal for the at least one malfunction, wherein the processing system is operative to perform or enable a verification that electronic map data to be used in the execution of the automated driving function complies with criteria that are based at least on the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs of the one or several safety-relevant map features.
15. 15. A vehicle, comprising: a vehicle system operative to execute an automated driving function; wherein the vehicle system comprises at least part of the processing system of claim 14.
16. 16. Machine-readable instruction code comprising instructions which, when executed by at least one processing circuit, cause the at least one processing circuit to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 13.

Description

METHOD OF ENHANCING VEHICLE SAFETY, METHOD OF CONTROLLING VEHICLE OPERATION, PROCESSING SYSTEM, VEHICLE, AND MACHINE- READABLE INSTRUCTION CODE TECHNICAL FIELD Embodiments of the invention relate to techniques associated with automated driving functions of vehicles. Embodiments of the invention relate in particular to methods and systems operative to enhance safety of automated driving functions when a vehicle uses electronic map data, optionally in combination with sensor data, to perform automated driving functions, such as driver assistance, advanced driver assistance, or autonomous driving. Embodiments of the invention also relate to processing systems, vehicles, and machine-readable instruction code associated with techniques of enhancing safety of an automated driving function. BACKGROUND Techniques that provide assistance to a driver of a vehicle and/or that autonomously perform vehicle control operations are gaining popularity. In addition to enhanced convenience for a driver, or the potential of alleviating human vehicle occupants from most control operations, such techniques have the potential of eliminating human errors that can cost lives. Such techniques include, without limitation, driver assistance systems, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), Highly Automated Driving (HAD) systems, and/or autonomous driving systems. Such techniques are collectively referred to as providing automated driving functions, or driving automation, at level 1 (driver assistance), level 2 (partial driving automation), level 3 (conditional driving automation), level 4 (high driving automation), or level 5 (full driving automation). Automated driving functions may use perception, i.e., the processing and interpretation of data captured by a vehicle sensor for performing the respective automated driving function. A world model used in performing the automated driving function may be based on map data of an electronic map. There exist a wide variety of different electronic maps which may have different levels of detail and that may differ from each other in other aspects. For illustration, the different electronic maps may be distinguished from each other by the map features of the electronic maps and the key performance indicators that the map features have in each of the electronic maps. The question of which electronic map data allows an automated driving function to be executed is, thus, pertinent to vehicle safety when executing the automated driving function. WO 2021/170718A2 discloses a technique for the generating and provision of digital map data that is safe and reliable. The technique enables the verification of the digital map data in a map-client using a simple and efficient data structure to check the correctness of the map data before in-vehicle delivery to components that rely on this map data. There is a need in the art for enhanced techniques of determining whether electronic map data are suitable for safe execution of an automated driving function and of taking appropriate action to ensure that an automated function executed by a vehicle is not compromised by the use of electronic map data that does not guarantee the automated function to be executed safely. SUMMARY It is an object of embodiments of the invention to provide methods, systems, and devices that provide or utilize enhanced techniques of determining whether electronic map data allows an automated driving function to be performed in a safe manner. According to embodiments of the invention, a method, a processing system, a vehicle, and machine-readable instruction code as recited in the independent claims are provided. The dependent claims define preferred and advantageous embodiments. According to embodiments, it is determined, for each of one or several automated driving functions, which map features and which key performance indicators (KPIs) electronic map data must have to ensure that the automated driving function(s) is/are performed in a safe manner. The determined lists of map features and their KPIs required for safe execution of an automated function may then be used to verify that electronic map data to be used has the required map feature(s) and KPI(s) and/or to selectively activate or deactivate automated driving functions in a manner which ensures that all activated automated driving functions require only map feature(s) and KPI(s) that have been verified to be present in the electronic map data used for execution of the activated automated driving functions. According to an aspect of the invention, a method of enhancing vehicle safety is provided. The method comprises determining, by at least one processing circuit, one or several safety-relevant map features and one or several safety-relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) of at least one of the one or several safety-relevant map features for an electronic map. The one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs are causal for