Wireless communication based solution will significantly contribute to the safety of future transport systems since it allows the participants of transport processes to collect and process information from the environment and from other participants, even if the applicability of other sensors are limited. Such a situation can occur when the field of view of the other sensors is obscured, for example, in the case of a non-line-of-sight scenario, in a densely in-built urban environment in the case of intersecting vehicles, or in a hilly environment, in the case of a longitudinal vehicle following situation. Accordingly, if only wireless communication can provide information for a highly automated vehicle function, the question of communication network performance becomes critical. In such a situation, from a safety point of view, it is fundamentally essential for the system to dynamically adjust its operation domain to the actual risk depending on the network performance indicators. According to the above-introduced considerations, the current paper presents a new methodology to derive a multi-dimensional safety risk function depending on relevant vehicle dynamics parameters and network performance indicators. The identification process of the risk function is based on a complex testing concept allowing the network-performance-indicator-dependent risk representation of the system-under-test. Beyond the novel testing concept aiming to enhance the safety of vehicular systems, the new approach makes it possible to improve the robustness of systems against network failures. The newly generated risk function can be considered during the design process of the automotive functions. The classical control approaches can be extended by preparing our systems to react to the change in the network performance indicators (such as packet delivery ratio or end-to-end latency). This allows us to control the automotive systems in a safe state, even in the case of critical changes in the network performance indicators. Furthermore, this new system nature can also be used to increase the resilience of automotive functions against different types of cyberattacks aiming to reduce the availability of the investigated communication channel.

Dr.-Ing. Árpád Török, Head of Research Group, Budapest Universitiy of Technology and Economics