SMLL leads the way in road safety research for CAV and CAM solutions. We have contributed to UK Government and TfL guidance on automated vehicles and developed safety cases for a range of automated vehicle trials.
For SMLL customers, we provide consultancy and support for every aspect of risk management and develop safety case documentation for trials and approvals.
Risk analysis
At the moment, on-road demonstration and testing of prototype autonomous vehicles is unregulated in the UK. Insurance cover provides a safety net for vehicle OEMs, system OEMs and local authorities who permit the vehicles on their roads.
Insurers need to understand the type and level of risk involved in a trial in order to set the premium. But in this evolving area, there’s limited evidence to support risk decisions.
SMLL experts from TRL have developed a proven framework for comprehensive risk assessment. It demonstrates real compliance with all relevant standards, guidance and legislation. It’s our responsibility to deliver a safe trial. Here is an example of an abridged safety case produced for an automated vehicle trial.
Risk assurance
Using a safety framework we take a system safety perspective, covering physical hazards, operational risks, safety driver workload assessment and specific route feature analysis. It models against vehicle technologies to produce a functional safety performance assessment, incident response management and a continuous improvement process.
Risk mitigation
Our experience means we thoroughly understand potential mitigation measures and can quickly make suggestions to improve the safety of a trial.
Safety case appraisal
When customers develop safety plans for a trial without our input, we can provide independent evaluation of a safety case for the trial managers and their insurers.
By comparing a third-party safety plan with our standard approach to risk assessment for a trial, we can identify and highlight deficiencies before a trial commences. We’ll advise on improvements which may reduce the insurance premium.
