(Informative)
Since the invention of the first Motorwagen in 1885, many innovations have made automobiles easier to drive and more responsive to human needs. An indicative list includes electric ignition starter, car radio, car key, power steering, cruise control, electric windows, intermittent windshield wipers, automatic transmission, anti-lock braking system (ABS), digital dashboard displays, electromagnetic parking sensors, on-board diagnostics, mobile connection, satellite navigation, reversing camera, automatic parking, driver assistance features, etc.
Since the the first “self-driving” car attempt in 1939, many efforts have transformed automobiles from machines solely driven by humans to machines with some “self-driving” capabilities. The “Levels” of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in the USA classify cars with some “self-driving” capabilities. Today, self-driving cars are not only technically possible, but commercially available. They promise to bring benefits that will positively affect industry, society, and the environment, such as:
- Saving lives and reducing injuries by removing human error thanks to a machine less prone to errors.
- Giving humans more time for rewarding activities, such as interpersonal communication.
- Optimising the use of vehicles and infrastructure.
- Reducing congestion and pollution.
- Supporting elderly and disabled people.
As society and individuals are expected to be positively impacted by the transformation of today’s “niche market” into tomorrow’s “mass market” of Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV), MPAI believes that a market of standard-enabled interchangeable components can enable a market of affordable and safe CAVs more efficiently and sooner than waiting for market forces to produce “monolithic” cars with progressively higher SAE Levels.
The MPAI-proposed open process is based on a shared Reference Model that partitions a CAV into subsystems and components specified in terms of reference model and exchanging data of known semantics. The CAV Reference Model will help:
- Researchers to optimise component technologies.
- Component manufacturers to bring their standard-conforming components to market once they are mature.
- Car manufacturers to access an open global market of interchangeable components.
- Regulators to oversee conformance testing of components following standard procedures.
- Users to rely on Connected Autonomous Vehicles whose operation they can explain to a large extent.
Far from being an impediment to technological progress, an interface standard enables the creation of a competitive market offering components with increasingly performance until a new, more powerful Reference Model may eventually replace the current one with another, thus initiating a new sequence of performance improvements.
In this Introduction and in the following Chapters, Capitalised Terms are defined in Table 1 if they are specific to this Technical Specification or online if they are shared with other MPAI Technical Specifications.
Chapters and Sections are Normative unless they are labelled as Informative.
