Toward Development of Ecosystem for Connected Autonomous Vehicles: Challenges of Modeling and Testing Sensors

Connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) are currently in the testing and evaluation stage as there are still many challenges to be addressed before CAVs can appear on public roads at mass scale. This letter outlines key areas needed for improvement in CAV sensors technology to accelerate deployment of CAVs. These areas include low-fidelity sensor models used in virtual testing, definition of performance envelopes for individual or fused CAV sensors, impact of sensor deterioration on a CAV's decision-making system, stimulation of real sensors with data generated in virtual testing environments, and a shortfall in industry standards for CAV perception systems testing.