Run time safety analysis for automotive systems in an open and adaptive environment

Cooperative vehicles are no longer fiction. A key factor is the ability for vehicles to exchange information with their environment. The shared information can be used to realize new functionalities, from virtual traffic lights to emergency braking, thus with potential to increase safety and efficiency of vehicle systems. However, external information has inherent uncertainties and this poses a threat to safety. In this paper we will discuss how to handle these uncertainties by use of dynamic safety contracts. We propose an extension to AUTomotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR) which consists of a safety manager which actively enforces the safety rules described in such safety contract. We also propose to integrate the architecture of an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) station tightly to AUTOSAR. It is our hypothesis that such architecture provides a viable platform for run time safety assessment. Future research work is to evaluate what kind of safety assessments our system can be able to handle.