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VV Methods Germany Project: The “Risk Management Core” / How to align system risk with social expectations?

Date and Time: Tuesday, July 11, 2023: 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Thomas Kirschbaum 

Senior Expert System Safety, Robert Bosch GmbH

Presentation Description

In highly automated driving, a crucial part of the interaction between technology and society is transferred from the human driver to a technical system. While electronic braking and steering interventions are considered feasible, generating vehicle behavior that is perceived as safe by society is more challenging.
This presentation addresses the question of how societal safety expectations can be captured, realized and ultimately demonstrated to society during the development process. The focus is on what changes compared to previous approaches.
Based on explicit risk assessment, risk modeling is performed by selectively comparing the identified risks with the accepted risks. Since this comparison is currently strongly based on experience, the robustness of the resulting safety statement varies from evidence to evidence.
The "Risk Management Core" designed in the publicly funded project "VV-Methods" takes the approach of explicitly considering risks. On the one hand, this means that risk values are captured in absolute terms, compared with risk acceptance criteria, and the necessary risk reduction is determined. And on the other hand, it means that the risk reduction measures taken are checked to determine whether they are sufficiently effective. This results in a risk control loop that ensures that the expected safety can actually be achieved.
This intended holistic view includes, that risks from all technical disciplines such as Functional Safety (FuSa) and Safety of the intended functionality (SOTIF) can be considered together.

The "Risk Management Core" is a generic approach that can be transferred to different levels of development. It is compatible with existing safety approaches and at the same time open to the application of principles from other industries, for example regarding to risk acceptance criteria. The simple basic principle of the "Risk Management Core" makes a valuable contribution to the safety argumentation, that must be made understandable to several different stakeholders in highly automated driving.

The "Risk Management Core" is already proving its worth in the context of the VVM project, for example in the work area of safety argumentation and for the exemplary creation of safe target behavior.
The structure of the "Risk Management Core" and its application for the creation of a safe target behavior is available as a preprint publication.

The work of the "Risk Management Core" is a result of the German public funded project "VV-Method" as a part of the PEGASUS project family. The project prepares its final results for end of 2023. The presentation of the Risk Management Core on the ARTS23 is part of the VVM dissemination activities to make the project results visible and useable for the community of interest. We appreciate very much the opportunity to share and explain this part of the results.

Speaker Biography

Thomas Kirschbaum has been employed at Robert Bosch GmbH since 1995. Thomas studied communications engineering at the University of Cooperative Education in Stuttgart and graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. As Senior Expert System Safety he is currently contributing his many years of experience in the field of safety to the standardization of highly automated road vehicles (ISO/TR 4804, ISO/TS 5083) and to the German publicly funded project VVMethoden. Previously, Thomas was responsible for the safety aspects of railway projects, including his role as a recognized expert for the German Federal Railway Authority. Since the emergence of the ISO 26262 safety standard and its in-house roll-out in 2009-2013, Thomas has had responsibility for various safety topics. In addition, his professional career includes projects in software and hardware development as well as responsibility in quality assurance and product management.

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