Explain it for Safety: Explanations for Risk Mitigation

Kurzfassung

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) must realise their mission goals while they navigate through hazards prioritising safety. These conflict situations often involve significant risks for all traffic participants. We postulate a key benefit of incorporating explanations in such high-risk scenarios: when delivered to the right recipient at the right time, an explanation can reduce risks in conflict situations. This paper advocates for explanations that not only enhance understanding of conflicts but actively contribute to their resolution. We illustrate our case with examples of high-risk conflict scenarios and derive essential design processes and requirements for risk-mitigating explanations.