Alex Foessel

For decades, medium and large size off-road equipment engineering and manufacturing companies, and more recently venture investors, have applied large amounts of resources to develop functional off-road highly automated and autonomous machines in field like agriculture, construction, mining, turf. Yet there are few examples of large-scale commercial success of autonomous vehicles (mining being a notable exception). Product liability is a key obstacle to this commercial success, due mostly to the absence of a local operator, who traditionally held much of the responsibility. Formalizing liability exposure among the various actors (equipment owner, manufacturer, distribution, insurance, etc.) in the absence of a local operator can be managed through the necessary level of safety. Also, straight adoption of on-road approaches may drive unneeded complexity and cost, as on-road methods and standards are geared towards a fundamentally different risk profile. In addition, off-road solutions on lower sales volumes become impractical. But volume issues can be partially offset by leveraging automotive hardware and software solutions that are carefully tailored.

This presentation examines several dimensions of attaining product safety goals in a way to manage liability and reduce business risk. These dimensions include the tailoring of functional safety standards to objectively characterized risks present in off-road applications, integrating vehicle security as a necessary element of product safety, adoption of Safety Of The Intended Function (SOTIF) standards, and other elements of a verifiable and documented safety case.