SAE International, along with Ford, General Motors (GM), and Toyota, are forming the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium™ (AVSC) that will work to safely advance testing, pre-competitive development and deployment of SAE L  evel 4 and 5 automated vehicles. 

The AVSC will fill a critical need by providing a safety framework around which autonomous technology can responsibly evolve in advance of broad deployment, according to a statement. The work will ultimately inform and accelerate the development of industry standards for autonomous vehicles (AVs) and harmonize with efforts of other consortia and standards bodies throughout the world.

The consortium will leverage the expertise of its 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. The roadmap is intended to be applicable for developers, manufacturers, and integrators of automated vehicle technology and focuses on data sharing, vehicle interaction with other road users, and safe testing guidelines.

“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,” said Randy Visintainer, chief technology officer, Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC. “Our goal with the consortium is to work with industry and government partners to expedite development of standards that can lead to rule making.”

SAE International will leverage the experience of its affiliate organization, SAE Industry Technologies Consortia (SAE ITC), to convene the members of the AVSC. SAE ITC has vast experience in the formation of consortia allowing industry to quickly establish frameworks to address opportunities and challenges. The automotive industry is now leveraging SAE ITC’s successful aerospace industry-managed consortia model.

The AVSC will continue to share its vision and progress throughout the year, including at SAE International’s World Congress Experience (WCX) April 9-11, 2019 in Detroit.