Automated Driving on Motorways (AUTOMOTO): Study of Infrastructure Support and Classification for Automated Driving on Finnish Motorways

The goals of the project were to 1) assess the feasibility of the selected motorway section for the operation of SAE Level 3 and 4 automated vehicles, 2) propose a framework for service level classification for automated vehicles and 3) prepare a proposal for further research, R&D and international cooperation.
The feasibility of the current road network for automated vehicles was assessed with a detailed inventory of the selected motorway section on E12 highway between Helsinki and Tampere, the overall length of 160 km per direction. Overall, the assessment proved, that the current physical and digital infrastructures provide good support for the basic use cases of level 3 or 4 highway autopilot. The project team did not identify any major defects that would require immediate corrective actions with regards to supporting automated driving on motorways.
The service level classification builds on the ISAD (Infrastructure Support for Automated Driving) levels but has been extended to other relevant attribute areas of physical infrastructure, environmental conditions, and dynamic elements. The five ISAD levels from E to A have been maintained and the new attribute areas have been labeled following the original logic in digital infrastructure. The level thresholds are partly quantitative, where applicable data exists, and partly qualitatively described.
The likely ODD attributes were compiled based on existing literature, and the validation and reformulation of the attributes based on the implemented field measurements and the views of subtask experts. The ODD attribute list was compressed to the most critical attributes, that are applicable in motorway environment and that can be provided with threshold values between the service levels, based on the current knowledge. The accomplished work should give the national authorities and operators a solid understanding of the most critical parts of the infrastructure regarding conditionally or highly automated driving. The created framework should work well in the communication of the overall and thematical AV support for the users and developers.
There are many topics that require active follow-up of international standardization of AV support and related technological development. Topics suitable for national development include the need and requirements for positioning-support landmarks, new solutions for fast detection of road surface defects, and the development of improved road weather information. The next steps regarding the classification are to widen the mapping of the current Finnish motorway network against the classification and the development of similar type of classifications to other road environments. It would also be extremely useful to test the proposed classification in practice, e.g. in European projects and actions to find out about the applicability of the classification in other countries, even though the classification was designed especially the Finnish conditions in mind.