How Can Engineers Help Ensure the Safety, Reliability of Automated Vehicles?

April 26, 2019

William Kucinski

Safety presents a pressing concern to automated vehicle (AV) design engineers and manufacturers. Technical challenges of automated system operation have influenced public perception and trust and profoundly affected AV acceptance, testing on public streets, and integration into the transportation infrastructure. Media reports also often overlook the need for maintaining and ensuring the reliability of these next-generation transportation systems.

Regardless, automated systems development and testing continue at a very rapid pace. While several industry studies report passenger vehicle usage is currently at five percent, future projections estimate that automated fleet usage could be as high as 95 percent in the coming years.

Learn more: SAE EDGE Research Report: Unsettled Topics Concerning Sensors for Automated Road Vehicles

This widespread adoption and integration require improved system reliability which will involve many engineering disciplines such as safety and risk mitigation, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and sensor technology.

William Kucinski is content editor at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group in Warrendale, Pa. Previously, he worked as a writer at the NASA Safety Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was responsible for writing the agency’s System Failure Case Studies. His interests include literally anything that has to do with space, past and present military aircraft, and propulsion technology.

Contact him regarding any article or collaboration ideas by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..