AI Driver Safety Simulation Using Virtual Quotients

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Solution Overview

Problem

The impracticality of conducting extensive road tests for automated vehicles (AVs) due to the requirement of billions of miles of testing to observe rare failures, the need to cover various weather and road conditions, and the inability to compare AI driver performance with human drivers effectively, making it costly and time-consuming.

Innovation Solution

The development of computerized simulations that allow for the rapid and cost-effective training of AI drivers in virtual environments, enabling the simulation of diverse scenarios and comparison of AI and human driver performance through the determination of safety quotients and other parameters.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If extensive road tests are conducted to observe rare failures and cover various conditions, then safety validation reliability is improved, but testing time and cost increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesafety validation reliabilityVSAvoidtesting time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates virtual copies of road environments, vehicles, and traffic scenarios through computer simulations. These virtual replicas allow exhaustive testing of safety scenarios without the time and cost constraints of physical road tests, enabling billions of miles of equivalent testing to be performed rapidly in silico

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary safety validation through simulations before actual road testing. By pre-testing various failure scenarios, weather conditions, and road situations in the virtual environment, the system identifies potential safety issues beforehand, reducing the need for extensive corrective road testing later

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If extensive road tests are conducted to cover various weather and road conditions, then safety validation reliability is improved, but testing cost increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesafety validation reliabilityVSAvoidtesting cost

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

Virtual simulations create digital replicas of diverse weather conditions, road surfaces, and environmental factors at minimal cost. Instead of physically traveling through numerous locations and weather conditions, the system renders these scenarios computationally, eliminating fuel, vehicle wear, and logistical expenses associated with physical road testing

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

3Reliability

If road tests are re-performed after system revisions to confirm no unintended side-effects, then safety reliability is maintained, but development time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesafety reliabilityVSAvoiddevelopment speed

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary regression testing through simulations immediately after system revisions. By pre-validating that updates do not introduce new safety issues in the virtual environment before road testing, the system maintains safety reliability while enabling faster development iterations

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

Virtual copies of previously tested scenarios are reused to efficiently perform regression testing. The simulation system can rapidly re-execute archived test cases with updated software versions, providing quick validation that revisions have not compromised previously validated safety aspects

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

4Measurement precision

If actual road tests are conducted to compare AI driver performance with human drivers, then performance validation accuracy is improved, but testing complexity increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveperformance validation accuracyVSAvoidtesting complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system creates virtual human drivers with realistic driving behavior models and compares their performance against AI drivers in identical simulated scenarios. This copying approach enables controlled comparison of AI versus human performance metrics without the complexity of recruiting and coordinating actual human drivers for matched comparison tests

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

5Reliability

If billions of miles of road tests are conducted to obtain sufficient sample size for observing failures, then failure detection reliability is improved, but productivity decreases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefailure detection reliabilityVSAvoidtesting throughput

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

Virtual simulations enable parallel execution of billions of equivalent test miles through multiple simulated vehicles operating simultaneously in the digital environment. This copying approach maintains failure detection reliability by achieving sufficient sample sizes while increasing productivity through concurrent testing that would be impossible with physical vehicles

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentUS11354458B1Automated vehicle safety simulation using safety quotient method

Publication Date: 2022.06.07 D&E US PARENT LLC

AI summary

Examples described herein relate to apparatuses and methods for or simulating and improving performance of an artificial intelligence (AI) driver, including but not limited to determining safety quotients associated with an AI driver and an AI/human driver in simulations to provide data for reinforced machine learning to improve the AI driver.