SHADES: System Safety through the Combination of HMI and Dependable Systems

Introduction

Vehicles of today offer an increasing number of In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Cruise control and route guidance are examples of systems already in frequent use, and lane departure warning, night vision and collision warning are examples of systems now coming into commercial use.

As the introduction of technical support usually increases the demand on human cognition, while the demand on human action is reduced, the driver’s role changes from mainly manual control to more supervisory control. Moving the driver out-of-the-loop like that can, besides causing over-reliance and deteriorated situation awareness etc., have a negative impact on the driver’s ability to take over when technology fails or conditions outside its functional limits appear. System safety will thus be depending on an adequate interface to the driver, proper interaction between driver and system, and proper detection and handling of technical faults in the systems. All these issues are important to address during system development.

The project is financed by SAFER, the Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre at Chalmers University of Technology. 

Project objectives
The objective is to make SAFER an internationally leading competence platform that combines behavioural science with computer science in the development and implementation of safe IVIS and ADAS for road vehicles. A systemic approach shall be taken to investigate the inherent system safety as well as the safety related to using and operating the system. 

The project will

• produce two PhD’s
• combine research in HMI with research in dependable systems to increase system safety in vehicles.
• study how errors are handled by the driver and the safety related consequences.
• develop diagnosis of safety systems in a vehicle.
• develop methods for error presentation and for evaluation of fault tolerance.

The vision of SAFER will be strengthened through

• an internationally leading multidisciplinary competence area built on behavioural science and dependable systems.
• expertise in system safety possible to use in the development of safe IVIS and ADAS systems.

Project partners

• Chalmers University of Technology
• Luleå University of Technology
• Saab Automobile AB
• SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden
• AB Volvo
• Volvo Car Corporation
• VTI, the Swdish National Road and Transport Research Institute