The common approach to express Driving Assistance Systems (DAS) functionalities is often based on use cases that explain driving context and required assistance. However, DAS design requires temporal consideration of driving situation evolution when using the assistance, in order to define when the assistance is activated and which decision criteria is used. Driving situation complexity and its temporal progress cannot be easily appreciated without tools taking into account all actors (pedestrians, driver, vehicles…) and assistance effects on the scenario evolution.

This paper describes a software application that offers designers a light and simple way to early design, tune and test DAS functioning on progressing situations. This tool is developed in the VIVRE 2 project to support the early design of a DAS that warns truck drivers to avoid pedestrian collisions. In this context, the tool permits to test the DAS functioning by running “dynamic use cases” (static use cases enriched with additional inputs to reflect the temporal evolution). It allows the designer to build scenarios with specifics parameters about driver, truck, pedestrians and assistance. It also proposes replay and trace features that help the analysis of the “dynamic use cases” combination. These iterative tests and adjustments of DAS allow determining decision criteria that works in all targeted situations.

To further efficient early design, the tool must stay light and easy to use. As a consequence, the temporal evolution models of actors are kept simple. Once the DAS functioning is validated, another design phase in more realistic conditions is required;​ to make sure that no unanticipated behaviour occurs, which may reduce the functioning.

This approach is crucial for early designing of a DAS to bring continuity to the use cases and to evaluate the consequences of any decision criteria modification on the global functioning in order to ensure driver warning efficiency.