{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/129842"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/129842","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Developing a simulator to aid in the design of a safety interlock for self-driving cars","abstract":"Self-driving cars have tremendous potential to be safer than human drivers, but are complex systems for which evaluating safety is challenging: using a statistical approach requires self-driving cars to have clocked on the order of billions of miles of driving to present convincing evidence. Thus there is potential in exploring a new design architecture for self-driving cars in which a small, trusted module of code cooperates with the main controller to ensure safety while being easily verifiable; we call this the safety Interlock. This thesis focuses on the scenario of an ego car driving in a single, straight lane behind a lead car that may suddenly brake. We first propose and prove, using formal verification, an algorithm for Interlock to prevent collision by maintaining a safe separation distance that allows the ego car to stop in time. We then present a simulation program developed using the Processing programming language, which provides visual confirmation of the efficacy of the Interlock algorithm, and is designed to be extensible to more complex road scenarios.","abstract_html":"Self-driving cars have tremendous potential to be safer than human drivers, but are complex systems for which evaluating safety is challenging: using a statistical approach requires self-driving cars to have clocked on the order of billions of miles of driving to present convincing evidence. Thus there is potential in exploring a new design architecture for self-driving cars in which a small, trusted module of code cooperates with the main controller to ensure safety while being easily verifiable; we call this the safety Interlock. This thesis focuses on the scenario of an ego car driving in a single, straight lane behind a lead car that may suddenly brake. We first propose and prove, using formal verification, an algorithm for Interlock to prevent collision by maintaining a safe separation distance that allows the ego car to stop in time. We then present a simulation program developed using the Processing programming language, which provides visual confirmation of the efficacy of the Interlock algorithm, and is designed to be extensible to more complex road scenarios.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Leong Feng Ping, Angela."],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":"Master","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Daniel N. Jackson."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020","date_published":"2020","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:22:12Z","subjects":["Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["MIT theses may be protected by copyright. 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We first propose and prove, using formal verification, an algorithm for Interlock to prevent collision by maintaining a safe separation distance that allows the ego car to stop in time. We then present a simulation program developed using the Processing programming language, which provides visual confirmation of the efficacy of the Interlock algorithm, and is designed to be extensible to more complex road scenarios."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["M. Eng."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Developing a simulator to aid in the design of a safety interlock for self-driving cars"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Daniel N. Jackson."],"dc:contributor.department":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science","EECS"],"dc:contributor.other":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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Thus there is potential in exploring a new design architecture for self-driving cars in which a small, trusted module of code cooperates with the main controller to ensure safety while being easily verifiable; we call this the safety Interlock. This thesis focuses on the scenario of an ego car driving in a single, straight lane behind a lead car that may suddenly brake. We first propose and prove, using formal verification, an algorithm for Interlock to prevent collision by maintaining a safe separation distance that allows the ego car to stop in time. We then present a simulation program developed using the Processing programming language, which provides visual confirmation of the efficacy of the Interlock algorithm, and is designed to be extensible to more complex road scenarios."],"dc:description.degree":["M. 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