Understanding and Complying with ISO/TS 5083

Understanding ISO/TS 5083

To align with industry standards and ensure safety, ISO/TS 5083 introduces requirements that facilitate the integration of AD systems. 

Thomas Kirschbaum, Senior Expert in System Safety at Bosch, shares his insights on the main objectives of ISO/TS 5083, best practices for preparation, conformity requirements, and its overall impact on automotive safety.

Automotive IQ: What are the core objectives of ISO/TS 5083, and why is it crucial for automotive professionals to understand it?

Thomas: Significant improvements in sensors, vehicle computers, data number crunchers, and the related data infrastructure during the last decade allowed technology to reach a point where road vehicles are, in fact, able to execute driving tasks without human presence, even in challenging environments. Of course, this opens a world of partial automation features, where the driver can hand over the driving task to the vehicle for a specific use case until called back to take over control again.

As automotive safety professionals, we have been ensuring the absence of unreasonable risk, at least since ISO 26262 for functional safety, came into life in the 2010s. About 10 years later supplemented with ISO 21448 – the safety of the intended functionality when especially sensor performance became safety critical in upcoming features such as Automated Emergency Braking. Until then, the driver always was the final safety backup with its performance accepted by society. This all changed with handing over the complete responsibility for the driving task to an automated driving system.

The big elephant in the room was, and still is, “What are the measurable indicators and der required level of safety for such an AD System?” An automated driving system differs significantly from a human driver in properties like reaction times, drowsiness and being drunk on the one hand side and in the ease to interpret situations never seen before or environments changing over time on the other hand. This leads to a high variance of expectations - especially concerning safety - that shall be placed on such a system. 

To solve this equation, the social discourse is needed. Because it is society's safety expectations that we must meet. At the same time, and as an orientation for the former, there is a need for discourse among experts from all over the world. This is why ISO/TS 5083 - Road Vehicles - Safety for Automated Driving Systems — Design, Verification, and Validation and its predecessor documents have been created. This is why Automotive Professionals meet for the Functional Safety Week in Munich.

The objective of ISO/TS 5083 is to guide through the development of AD Systems and state requirements to achieve safety not only during development time but also post deployment during operation.

Automotive IQ: What can be done to prepare for the incoming ISO/TS 5083? Are there early pitfalls of the standard already identified and how can these be addressed in a future edition of ISO/TS 5083? 3rd edition of ISO 26262?

Thomas: Before diving into or implementing ISO/TS 5083, I recommend preparing and implementing the principles of ISO 26262 - Functional Safety and ISO 21448 - Safety of the Intended Functionality. When planning to apply AI technology for the ADS features – which should be very likely - I also recommend reading the new ISO/PAS 8800 - Safety and AI, because one Annex in ISO/TS 5083 applies this standard for ADS-specific purposes.

I would then take the ISO/SAE PAS 22736 - Taxonomy and definitions for terms related to driving automation systems for on-road motor vehicles and review the difference between the definitions of Driving Automation Systems (DAS) and Automated Driving Systems (ADS). This is important because ISO/TS 5083 is about ADS only. Finally, it’s also a good idea to have some Safety Argumentation experience or literature prepared. Not that Safety Argumentation is a new thing, but I saw examples that kept Safety Argumentation very efficient with ISO 26262. For complex systems like AD Systems, a proper Safety Argumentation scheme is essential. ISO/TS 5083 helps here but does not go into all the details.

ISO/TS 5083 belongs to a series of document publications concerning the Safety of AD Systems. All started with the SafAD (Safety First for Automated Driving) Whitepaper which was transferred into the Technical Report ISO/TR 4804. ISO/TS 5083 now is the first document in this row, that contains normative requirements. That is these normative requirements need to be fulfilled to claim conformance with the document. With this evolution in the past, it’s pretty obvious, that further publications will follow. So, I don’t see pitfalls in the current document but for sure challenges that can be addressed in future editions of the standard. For example, a wide range of automated driving features fall in the scope of the document. From automated valet parking to highway applications to autonomous urban taxis and beyond. Addressing this spectrum with a unique set of requirements turned out to be a challenge. I could also imagine that users would be grateful for further support in the application of concepts such as principles and capabilities or the distinction between internal and external ADS requirements.    

What are the key steps that automotive manufacturers must follow to comply with ISO/TS 5083?

One big change from the predecessor document ISO/TR 4804 to ISO/TS 5083 was the alignment of the requirements along the V-Cycle as it is known for example from ISO 26262. So the automotive safety community should feel very familiar with the basic categories of requirements such as feature definition, definition of safety requirements, verification, and validation. As expected, the standard places greater emphasis on aspects such as the operation of an ADS-equipped vehicle and the definition of risk acceptance criteria in correlation with the safety argumentation. Of course, these requirements are relevant not only for automotive manufacturers but also for according suppliers.

How will this standard impact the development and design of automotive systems, its real-world implications, and how should the reader view its importance in terms of industry evolution and technological advancements? 

I think among others one important thing the automotive community has learned in terms of AD systems is the fact that the system cannot be specified by a set of written requirements completely. The reason for this is not only the complexity of such systems but also the variant-rich environment, which even changes over the lifetime of the system. Several new approaches, technical solutions and organisational skills are required to meet this challenge. This includes more abstract concepts for product specification, comprehensible approaches to safety argumentation, and in particular, greater consideration of measures during operation of ADS-equipped vehicles. ISO/TS 5083 takes up these approaches and provides extensive implementation options in an annex of over 100 pages.

I think it is important to understand, that the real need for change does not come from the standard document, but from our desire to build and use convenient automated driving systems that at the same time meet the safety expectations of the society. The standardisation activities help us to stay on an internationally well-aligned common path and to have a common view on the safety claims towards our systems.

What role does Functional Safety Week play in keeping professionals informed about changes in ISO/TS 5083 and AI integration?

The Functional Safety Week brings together the increasing number of disciples to be considered for safety when deploying automation features in road vehicles. It makes a big difference in getting explained the core aspects from “the horse’s mouth” so to say – from speakers that are really involved in creating the upcoming technology. A place where you can address your most urgent questions about the latest developments in automotive safety.

Automotive Functional Safety Week 2025

Interested in hearing more? Download the agenda for Automotive Functional Safety Week 2025, taking place at Hilton Munich City, Munich, Germany, on 28th - 30th April 2025. 

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