Intel and the auto industry pen first safety rules for self-driving cars

Intel and a team of automotive companies have teamed up to create new guidelines for autonomous vehicles. The intention of the "Safety First Automated Driving" paper, published today, is to establish a framework of universal safety principles that all self-driving cars should abide by. The standards deal primarily with how the industry should monitor and report safety standards when building and operating autonomous cars.

Aptiv, Audi, Baidu, BMW, Continental, Daimler, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Here Technologies, Infineon and Volkswagen were all involved in crafting the paper, which established 12 principles for autonomous vehicles. They include: safe operation, operational design domain, vehicle operator-initiated handover, security, user responsibility, vehicle-initiated handover, interdependency between the vehicle operator and the automated system, safety assessment, data recording, passive safety, behavior in traffic and safe layer. The paper, which is more than 100 pages, contains more details specifications for each principle.

The move by the industry to establish its own guidelines comes at a time when self-driving cars may be facing additional government scrutiny. The US Department of Transportation has been working to establish rules at the federal level while states have offered their own, varied requirements -- some considerably more lax than others.