This paper addresses the research question, how the depending criteria effectiveness, acceptance, controllability and functional safety of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) can be evaluated and considered already during the vehicle development process starting at a very early stage.

On the basis of a systematic overview and classification on safety evaluation methods an ADAS development and evaluation process is introduced, in which system, vehicle, driver and the traffic environment are either represented virtually or experimentally.

This evaluation concept, called “circuit of critical driving situations” provides a methodological connection of the mutual dependencies between system effectiveness, acceptance, controllability and functional safety.

The necessary interaction of competences and scientific disciplines is described, in order to implement this approach, namely vehicle technology, psychology and functional safety.