The HEAT is on! – Functional Safety of Chassis Functions for Highly Automated Public Transportation

The mobility demand of people is a key enabler for autonomous driving and transportation technology. Nowadays, several research projects find practice in public studies. IAV as a technology specialist is developing a shuttle for highly automated public transportation within the research project HEAT. This paper presents an insight into chassis development of the prototype. First, an overview of the project aims is given. To realize safe driving on open road for test operation, functional safety has to be considered carefully. Therefore, the paper puts focus on functional safety issues starting with the background and general strategy. After that, essential excerpts are given to understand further steps. Within the current development phase, a shuttle attendant observes shuttle driving behavior and conditions on open road. The attendant is able to take over and react for de-escalation, if necessary. Knowledge from operation on public road is used to enhance functional abilities of the shuttle. Therefore, this paper presents aspects of a chassis safety concept for safe travelling with focus on SAE-Level 4. The paper sums up with a discussion of the current challenges and perspective.