May the ODD Be With You: A Stakeholder Analysis on Operational Design Domains of Automated Driving Systems

Abstract

Developing an automated driving system (ADS) is a complex task requiring collaboration between various stakeholders. To support this process, the concept of operational design domain (ODD) has emerged to define the conditions under which an ADS is designed to operate safely. Nonetheless, stakeholders require variable levels of information from an ODD to effectively integrate it into their work processes. Considering the ODD as a crucial asset in developing an ADS, a general overview of how stakeholders use and update the ODD is missing. Thus, this paper focuses on the identification and thorough investigation of eight main stakeholder categories, including self-driving system developers, regulators, and ADS customers. Each of the stakeholder categories will be further subdivided to provide a comprehensive understanding of all the ODD stakeholders involved. Furthermore, a stakeholder analysis is used to assess the ODD stakeholders’ expectations, interests, and influence through qualified interviews with experts of each domain. The analysis identifies the inputs received and the outputs supplied based on the corresponding levels of detail. These findings are summarised in a comprehensive overview to map all necessary ODD engineering requirements and deliverables for all the stakeholders that have been identified. Furthermore, this analysis explains the importance and implications of an ODD for the associated academic and business contexts.