What's ODD about self-driving cars?

ODD stands for Operational Design Domain, which refers to the operating conditions specifically designed for automatic driving and related functions, including but not limited to road type, driving area, speed, environment, etc. In the recommended national standard of "GBT Automobile Driving Automation Classification" released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, ODD is the vehicle state and external environment of driving automation functions determined at the time of design. ODD defines the capabilities of the autonomous driving system and prevents possible accidents by limiting the driving environment and driving methods.

After a brief summary, we know that the operating design domain (ODD) is the operating conditions set by the functions of the automatic driving system, the purpose is to define which conditions are capable of automatic driving, without these conditions, the automatic driving can not be guaranteed to work. For example, the automatic driving system of a car can only be used on the high speed, it can automatically keep lanes, automatically overtake, automatically follow the car, automatically give way, automatically pass the ETC, automatically go on and off the ramp, etc., but in the city complex road conditions beyond the ODD range, it can not be fully autonomous.

Because the current autonomous driving technology is still in the development stage, there is no guarantee that autonomous vehicles can drive safely in any road environment and climate conditions. Therefore, there must be a limited operating condition. And this condition can be very broad, can be very precise, and determines what kind of scenarios the autonomous vehicle can handle. At the same time, as a developer, it is also necessary to ensure that the autonomous driving test and verification are complete and ensure sufficient safety under the clearly set ODD. When the ODD condition is not reached, there are contingency measures or let the driver take over manually, and even take emergency measures to ensure safety.