SAE International, Ford, General Motors, and Toyota Form Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium

The Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium™ (AVSC) will focus on advancing safe deployment of SAE Level 4 and Level 5 automated vehicles.

April 4, 2019

Courtney E. Howard

Stock Photos from posteriori / Shutterstock

SAE International is partnering with Ford, General Motors (GM), and Toyota to form the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium™ (AVSC) , which will work to help safely advance the testing, precompetitive development, and deployment of SAE Level 4 and 5 automated vehicles. The AVSC will provide a safety framework around which autonomous technology can responsibly evolve in advance of broad deployment, ultimately helping to inform and accelerate the development of industry standards for autonomous vehicles (AVs) and harmonize with efforts of other consortia and standards bodies.

The consortium will leverage the expertise of current and future members to establish a set of AV safety guiding principles to help inform standards development . The first output from the AVSC will be a roadmap of priorities, applicable to developers, manufacturers, and integrators of automated vehicle technology and focusing on data sharing, vehicle interaction with other road users, and safe testing guidelines.

Download: SAE J3016, Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to Driving Automation Systems for On-Road Motor Vehicles

Read: SAE International’s Levels of Driving Automation

“We understand that autonomous vehicles need to operate safely and reliably in concert with infrastructure and other road users to earn the trust of the communities in which they are deployed,” Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC Chief Technology Officer Randy Visintainer. “Our goal with the consortium is to work with industry and government partners to expedite development of standards that can lead to rulemaking.”

“We are eager to bring our experience to this consortium and to collaborate with other like-minded companies, so we can realize the true benefits of this technology and work toward a future with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion,” GM Global Vehicle Safety Director John Capp.

Visit: SAE International’s Automated and Connected Knowledge Hub

“The formation of this consortium creates a forum to collaborate and cooperate with various stakeholders who will play important roles in forming and synthesizing the automated vehicle eco-system of tomorrow,” adds Kelly Kay, Toyota Research Institute EVP and chief safety officer.

Courtney E. Howard is editorial director and content strategist at SAE International. Contact her by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .