The Open Autonomy Safety Case Framework
Michael Wagner Carmen Carlan
A system safety case is a compelling, comprehensible, and valid argument
about the satisfaction of the safety goals of a given system operating in a
given environment supported by convincing evidence. Since the publication of UL
4600 in 2020, safety cases have become a best practice for measuring, managing,
and communicating the safety of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Although UL 4600
provides guidance on how to build the safety case for an AV, the complexity of
AVs and their operating environments, the novelty of the used technology, the
need for complying with various regulations and technical standards, and for
addressing cybersecurity concerns and ethical considerations make the
development of safety cases for AVs challenging. To this end, safety case
frameworks have been proposed that bring strategies, argument templates, and
other guidance together to support the development of a safety case. This paper
introduces the Open Autonomy Safety Case Framework, developed over years of
work with the autonomous vehicle industry, as a roadmap for how AVs can be
deployed safely and responsibly.