SC-ABeam Automotive Consulting has been commissioned to conduct studies for the purpose of fostering the public acceptance of automated driving as part of the Automated Driving for Universal Services (SIP Automated Driving) theme. The SIP Automated Driving theme, which is managed by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), is one of the themes in the Second Phase of the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) administered by the Cabinet Office. Among its commissioned activities, SC-ABeam Automotive Consulting formed a panel of outside experts, called the Automated Driving Awards Judging Panel, to judge the outcomes of SIP Automated Driving projects and select winners for the Automated Driving Awards. SC-ABeam Automotive Consulting is announcing the winners today, now that the judging panel has made its selections.
The SIP Automated Driving theme was launched in SIP’s First Phase in 2014 and has promoted R&D into solving such social issues as reducing traffic accidents, easing traffic congestion, and securing means of transportation for the elderly and other people with transportation limitations in rural and other areas with accessibility challenges. For the Second Phase, which started in 2018, the theme has promoted the expansion of practical applications of automated driving from expressways to general roads as well as the commercialization of distribution and mobility services using automated driving technology, with the aim of a society in which all residents can move around safely and securely.
The Automated Driving Awards were created with the aim of raising public acceptance of automated driving by encouraging researchers engaged in ongoing SIP Automated Driving projects toward social implementations of automated driving. Outside experts judge the significance of each project, from both user perspectives and social viewpoints, considering not only the project’s achievements so far but also its future prospects.
Tetsuya Muroyama, President of the Japanese Association of Science & Technology Journalists and Chair of the judging panel said the following about the Awards. “The SIP Automated Driving theme not only promotes technological development but also places importance on taking social issues and how people live into account. By assessing SIP Automated Driving projects through this lens from an outside perspective, we hope to convey through these Awards the high expectations the public has for automated driving initiatives. We also hope the Awards will motivate researchers to further advance their projects.”
As a compilation of the nine years of the SIP Automated Driving theme, a two-day event including presentations of project outcomes and a symposium will be held at Akihabara UDX on March 7 and 8 this year. Details will be announced on around February 10.
Safety Contribution Award:
Research study on technologies to counter new cyberattack methods
Human Factors Award:
Research study on HMI and safety education suitable for advanced automated driving
Innovation Award:
Development of techniques to create environments to assess automated driving in virtual spaces
Social Impact Award:
Mobility service using automated driving in hilly and mountainous regions
Project Sustainability Award:
Construction and effective use of traffic environment datasets and demonstration trials in the Tokyo Rinkai district
Chair
Tetsuya Muroyama, President of the Japanese Association of Science & Technology Journalists
Judges (in alphabetical order)
Kaya Hojo, writer
Kiyoshi Komoda, President of the Automobile Journalists Association of Japan
Urara Takaseki, CEO of Omotete, Inc.
Kiyoshi Tanigawa, Corporate Executive Officer and General Manager, Consumer Media Division, Car Watch, Impress Corporation
Dr. Iris Wieczorek, President of IRIS Science Management Inc.
Tatsuki Yamanami, CEO of scheme verge, Inc.
Winning Project:
Research study on technologies to counter new cyberattack methods
<Description of the research project>
Connected cars and automated driving systems rely on external networks to transmit various kinds of data, such as advanced map data, to the vehicles. These communications, however, make the vehicles vulnerable to cyber security issues. This research project focused on intrusion detection systems (IDS) as a technology to counter new cyberattacks directed at vehicles after they have been delivered as well as established IDS assessment guidelines. This fiscal year, the project is examining methods to collect and store information on threats to connected cars and running collection experiments using honeypots and other means, toward creating structures that support rapid initial responses in the event of actual incidents.
<Reasons for the project’s selection>
• Cyber security is a top priority issue for autonomous vehicles that send and receive information as they operate. This project identified areas that can be addressed through collaboration and contributed to raising cyber security awareness throughout the industry.
• The judging panel commends the project for its outcomes to date, such as establishing methods and guidelines to assess information on threats to connected cars and formalizing specifications for threat information collection and sharing functions.
[Project assessment criteria (for reference)]
• Is the research’s primary objective the reduction of traffic accidents and is it directly connected to accident reduction?
• Is the research applicable to current vehicles and not just future traffic safety and will it assist accident reduction in the near term?
Winning Project:
Research study on HMI and safety education suitable for advanced automated driving
<Description of the research project>
• Accurate detection of driver actions and behavior has become more important to ensure safe and timely switchovers from automated driving to manual control, a situation that does not occur with conventional automobiles. The project studied indicators for assessing the driver’s peripheral monitoring alertness before switchovers and studied the effect of human-machine interfaces (HMI) on how well drivers understand the system. The research clarified indicators to assess the peripheral awareness of drivers preparing to take manual control, the time required to achieve adequate peripheral awareness, and other factors relevant to switchovers initiated by Level 3 automated driving systems. The research also clarified the effectiveness of gaze tracking as a means of assessing the driver’s level of attention during Level 2 operation and the HMI requirements necessary to enable drivers to respond appropriately before the system reaches its functional limits.
• An issue for driverless vehicles in low-speed automated driving services is communicating with people in the surrounding traffic environment such as pedestrians and other drivers. Through experimental tests, the project analyzed the features of communications observed between driverless vehicles and people in the surrounding traffic environment and empirically examined various means of communications from vehicles (such as vehicle actions and behavior and externally directed HMI).
<Reasons for the project’s selection>
• Completely automated driving is still quite far into the future, so until we reach that level of automated driving, an important factor in ensuring safety is switching between automated driving and manual control, much like how a rider commands a horse. The judging panel recognizes this project for clarifying when driving assistance systems should intervene in a way that can reduce the time to switch between driving modes and that reassures drivers as well as describing methods of notifying drivers when switching to manual control that perform well.
• HMI is an essential research area to ensure safe mobility environments for all people, including those with visual and other impairments.
• While HMI is an area where differentiation should be encouraged, it is also an area where complications could occur in the absence of coordination among market players. Therefore, it was appropriate to tackle this research theme as a national project.
• HMI is one of the most important issues today, when technological civilization must align with the biological characteristics of humans. Integration with neuroscience and other human sciences is imperative.
[Project assessment criteria (for reference)]
• Is the project approaching automated driving with consideration of humans’ innate behaviors and dispositions, rather than having people adapting to machines? (Is the project attempting to find ways to foster reassurance, instead of focusing solely on mechanical or rule-based safety?)
• Does the research account for driving skill diversity and a multiplicity of driving situations? (Does the research address the individuality of people?)
• Is the project looking ahead to new technologies and new domains such as neuroscience and human factors engineering that are expected to expand rapidly in the near future?
Winning Project:
Development of techniques to create environments to assess automated driving in virtual spaces
<Description of the research project>
Automated driving systems are required to ensure high safety levels in countless driving conditions even as the systems grow more complex. However, exhaustive verifications of safety in real world driving conditions involve enormous costs (in terms of people, materials, money, and time). Other issues are the difficulties in verifying the physical limits of external sensors such as cameras, radar, and LiDAR versus the physical phenomena that occur in the natural world and the question of how far system constructors should actually go in assuring safety — i.e., how safe is safe enough? In view of these issues, the research project constructed an evaluation platform with virtual space simulations that feature a series of models — driving conditions, spatial propagation, and sensors — that are highly consistent with the actual phenomena required for evaluations of automated driving safety. The platform has been launched as a commercial venture called D-Drive Technologies.
<Reasons for the project’s selection>
• Technology that can produce readily reproducible simulations is an essential component of automated driving development. This project required competing automakers as well as universities and other institutions to work collaboratively on creating a precise simulator that can evaluate multiple sensors at the same time. The judging panel recognizes that this outcome was only possible through SIP, as a single company could not realize the same outcome without much difficulty.
• The judging panel commends the project for connecting innovation to social implementation — namely, the joint development by industry and academia of a world-class simulator (i.e., innovation in a collaborative field) and the launch of D-Drive Technologies as a commercial venture (an achievement in social implementation).
• As progress is made in software defined vehicles, the precision of functional verifications will be key to development capabilities. Given this, the judging panel expects the project’s construction of digital twins in virtual spaces and assurance of accurate consistency with real-world experiments will lead to further innovation.
[Project assessment criteria (for reference)]
• Does the research overcome existing issues connected to automated driving?
• Does the research project go beyond simply resolving current societal challenges to generate new value and value that disrupts the status quo?
• In light of SIP’s founding aspiration that “innovation is meaningful only when realized”, is the research working toward implementation rather than merely presenting approaches?
Winning Project:
Mobility service using automated driving in hilly and mountainous regions
<Description of the research project>
As a means of addressing the nationwide issue of an aging population, particularly in hilly and mountainous regions, the research project ran demonstration trials of an automated driving and mobility service on public roads that used highway rest stops and other locations in each area as bases. Short demonstration trials lasting around one week each were conducted in 18 locations around the country to verify five different aspects: (1) roads and traffic, (2) local circumstances and conditions, (3) costs, (4) public acceptance, and (5) effects on local communities. In addition, longer demonstration trials, with an eye to social implementation, lasting around one month were conducted in nine locations around the country to verify technical aspects (assurance of driving spaces and operational and management systems) and business model aspects (business implementation structures, tie-ups with other businesses for multipurpose applications, business profitability, and other factors).
<Reasons for the project’s selection>
• Automated driving is seen as an effective way of alleviating many regional issues, such as declining birthrates, aging populations, enhancing logistics, and promoting tourism. The key is having leaders who can take advantage of these characteristics. Also important will be the formation of information-based communities adapted to local regions in conjunction with automated driving.
• The judging panel praised the project for its feasibility and grassroots approach, especially in regard to its development of a reservation system that even older people find easy to use and its promotion of the widespread adoption of automated driving mobility services that ensure a reliable means of daily transportation. The project is also beneficial in that manned automated driving is well suited to the actual conditions in hilly and mountainous regions.
• The project also deserved the award for having conducted a large number of demonstration trials. These trials are expected to fuel more proposals of new, highly scalable automated driving services, including business models, in competitive domains.
[Project assessment criteria (for reference)]
• Does the research connect with other social factors beyond just automobiles to achieve a larger social impact or to bring changes to the lifestyles of individuals (impact on consumers)?
• Does the research project contribute to raising productivity of society as a whole (economic impact)?
• Does the research incorporate feedback from users and communities?
Winning Project:
Construction and effective use of traffic environment datasets and demonstration trials in the Tokyo Rinkai district
<Description of the research project>
Autonomous vehicles gather information about their immediate surroundings with multiple types of onboard sensors. However, if the vehicles could make use of various kinds of data about traffic conditions from public infrastructure via wireless communications, they would be able to operate safely and smoothly in more complex traffic environments. To this end, the project ran demonstration trials of a coordinated automated driving system in real traffic conditions.
To implement the trials, a matching-fund system was adopted, with the SIP Automated Driving program providing the installation and operation of equipment to communicate traffic condition data as well as the onboard equipment to receive the data, while trial participants provided experimental vehicles and covered the expenses for the experimental driving, including experimenters. A total of 29 organizations participated in the trials, including Japanese and overseas automakers, suppliers, and venture businesses as well as university research institutes.
<Reasons for the project’s selection>
• The project arranged conditions so that demonstration trials of automated driving could take place on public roads in Tokyo and attracted the participation of many companies from Japan and abroad. The judging panel commended the project for drawing up a roadmap extending until 2040 of technical issues and steps that should be tackled through industry, academia, and government partnerships in order to implement infrastructure-coordinated automated driving. Moving forward, it will be important to generate various types of synergy in a sustained manner while integrating many social elements.
• The project was indicative of the SIP Automated Driving theme, in that its scope went beyond what is achievable by an individual company.
[Project assessment criteria (for reference)]
• Is the research project constructing an ecosystem for continued innovation?
• Is the project constructing an ecosystem for industry-government-academia collaborations?
• Are young researchers active participants in the research project?
Note: For the Project Sustainability Award, a project promoting international collaboration also received high praise. In particular, it earned high marks for the importance of ongoing involvement in international standardization deliberations, given that automobiles are global products, and for forming academic collaborations as a framework that supports participation in international standardization.
Inquiries regarding this press release
Press contact: Kimura
SC-ABeam Automotive Consulting
(+81)80-5018-7922
scab-sympo@sc-abeam.com
