Method of enhancing vehicle safety, method of controlling vehicle operation, processing system, vehicle, and machine-readable instruction code

A method of controlling vehicle operation, comprising:

• determining one or several safety-relevant map features and one or several safety-relevant key performance indicators, KPIs, of at least one of the one or several safety-relevant map features for an electronic map, wherein the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs are causal for safe execution of an automated driving function by a vehicle, wherein determining the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs by the at least one processing circuit comprises:
• identifying one or several map features that affect execution of the automated driving function;
• determining the one or several safety-relevant map features, comprising determining which of the identified one or several map features are causal for at least one malfunction of the automated driving function;
• establishing, for each of the one or several safety-relevant map features, one or several KPIs of the safety-relevant map feature causal for at least one malfunction of the automated driving function;
• and
• determining the one or several safety-relevant KPIs for the one or several safety-relevant map features based at least on the established KPIs causal for the at least one malfunction;
• ensuring, by a server system or by the vehicle, compliance of electronic map data to be used in the execution of the automated driving function with criteria that are based at least on the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs of the one or several safety-relevant map features;
• selectively activating the automated driving function in response to determining that the electronic map data has the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs;
• and
• controlling, by the automated driving function, at least one vehicle component.

A processing system, comprising:

• at least one processing circuit operative to determine, for the electronic map, one or several safety-relevant map features and one or several safety-relevant key performance indicators, KPIs, of at least one of the one or several safety-relevant map features, wherein the one or several safety-relevant KPIs are causal for safe execution of an automated driving function by a vehicle, wherein the at least one processing circuit is operative to perform the following operations to determine the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs:
• identifying one or several map features that affect execution of the automated driving function;
• determining the one or several safety-relevant map features, comprising determining which of the identified one or several map features are causal for at least one malfunction of the automated driving function;
• establishing, for each of the one or several safety-relevant map features, one or several KPIs of the safety-relevant map feature causal for at least one malfunction of the automated driving function;
• and
• determining the one or several safety-relevant KPIs for the one or several safety-relevant map features based at least on the established KPIs causal for the at least one malfunction,
• wherein the processing system is operative to perform or enable a verification that electronic map data to be used in the execution of the automated driving function complies with criteria that are based at least on the one or several safety-relevant map features and the one or several safety-relevant KPIs of the one or several safety-relevant map features.