ABSTRACT
This chapter examines methods of classifying levels of vehicle automation that have been and in use, driving environments in which automated vehicles must operate, and international conventions that regulate the safe operation of all vehicles. It discusses the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 2016 automated vehicles policy that sets forth an approach to accelerate the development, testing, and operation of highly automated vehicles (HAV) and describes driver assist and automation options made available by a variety of vehicle manufacturers. Testing refers to analyses and evaluations of HAV systems and vehicles conducted by a researcher, manufacturer, entity, or expert third party at the request of one of those entities. Fully autonomous vehicles must be designed to operate under a variety of conditions, for example, large variations in road surface materials, road maintenance and lane demarcation quality, traffic flow levels, weather, unplanned event types and durations, and vehicle models and automation levels.
