Concerns on the differences between AI and system safety mindsets impacting autonomous vehicles safety

Abstract

The inflection point in the development of some core technologies enabled the Autonomous Vehicles (AV). The unprecedented growth rate in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities, focusing only on AVs, is expected to shift the transportation paradigm and bring relevant benefits to the society, such as accidents reduction. However, recent AVs accidents resulted in life losses. This paper presents a viewpoint discussion based on findings from a preliminary exploratory literature review. It was identified an important misalignment between AI and Safety research communities regarding the impact of AI on the safety risks in AV. This paper promotes this discussion, raises concerns on the potential consequences and suggests research topics to reduce the differences between AI and system safety mindsets.