Methodological challenges related to real-world automated driving pilots

This paper discusses the methodological challenges related to automated driving (AD) pilots in the realworld, providing an overview of some of the solutions offered by the L3Pilot project. Although theoverall methodology defined for Field Operational Tests (FOTs) has been developed quite extensivelyfor driver support systems, our efforts in the L3Pilot project show that the evaluation process can beadapted to suit the needs of AD pilot projects, as long as some caveats related to the pilot nature of ADstudies are acknowledged. The AD pilots currently in place around the world provide important insightsinto t he impacts of AD on their us ers, other road us ers and the societ y at large. However, as thes e s yst emsmature, large-scale FOTs will be needed as (closer to) ex-post evaluation, to verify the assessed impacts.This paper outlines the challenges and offers some solutions for working towards that goal.