Robust Communication for Cooperative Driving Maneuvers

The proposed benefits of enabling automated and autonomous vehicles to cooperate are manifold - however, these functions introduce a new level of uncertainty and unreliability inherent of wireless communication into a realm of safety-critical decisions. Since vehicle-to-vehicle communication in either ad hoc or managed environments can be inherently unreliable, it is of highest importance to critically evaluate the level and design of integration of cooperative information into the decision making process of automated functions. Thus, a robust integration of communication as a sensor has to take into account key issues such as penetration rate, reliability of communication and trust and develop appropriate methods of handling these issues to provide fail-safety. In this paper we present an approach to cooperative maneuvers in automated vehicles with emphasis on handling potential hazards introduced by communication. In this regard we propose the complimentary Collaborative Maneuver Protocol (CMP), combining novel approaches to enable robust, functionally safe collaboration between vehicles in vehicle-tovehicle communication.