System, device and method of identifying and updating the operational design domain of an autonomous vehicle

An autonomous vehicle equipped with an autonomous driving system (ADS), comprising:

• a processor system;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor system, the memory tangibly storing thereon executable instructions that, when executed by the processor system, cause the processor system to:
• prior to operating the vehicle, using an autonomous driving system (ADS) of the vehicle, within the environment corresponding to a proposed map:
• receive proposed condition space data comprising proposed map data representative of the proposed map;
• process the proposed map data to generate a geographic dataset comprising a plurality of map features of the proposed map, the plurality of map features including:
• a plurality of roadway segments on the proposed map;
• and
• a plurality of routes on the proposed map, each route comprising one or more of the roadway segments;
• obtain ADS performance data, representative of performance of the ADS, comprising at least:
• simulated ADS data, generated based on performance of the ADS in relation to simulated environmental data;
• process the proposed condition space data, the geographic dataset, and the ADS performance data to generate ADS risk data including, for each route of the plurality of routes, one or more route risk metric values, each route risk metric value being representative of a level of risk of operating the ADS on the route;
• and
• process the ADS risk data to generate an operational design domain (ODD) definition, the ODD definition defining an ODD consisting of a bounded-risk portion of the proposed condition space, by:
• identifying a first one or more routes consisting of each route of the plurality of routes having at least one route risk metric value of the one or more route risk metric values falling below a risk threshold, the first one or more routes defining the bounded-risk portion of the proposed condition space;
• and
• identifying a second one or more routes consisting of each route of the plurality of routes having no route risk metric value of the one or more route risk metric values falling below the risk threshold, the second one or more routes being excluded from the bounded-risk portion of the proposed condition space;
• after the ODD definition has been generated, store the ODD definition in the memory;
• and
• after the ODD has been generated and stored in the memory, restrict the operation of the vehicle, using the ADS, to within the ODD defined by the ODD definition stored in the memory.