Automated driving systems of SAE Level 3 and beyond allow transferring the driving task and responsibility to the vehicle and its automation systems. A crucial challenge for development and real-world performance is the balance between functionality, availability and safety, as a human driver only needs to be available as a fallback after sufficient lead-time. Consequently, automated driving requires enhanced capabilities of sensors, algorithms and actuators. This paper focuses on improved safety and driving comfort of automated vehicles and upcoming technical requirements compared to driver-only or assisted driving. It uses and adapts the state-of-the-art pro- spective effectiveness assessment method of ADAS to estimate accident avoidance potentials of automated driv- ing systems. The data sources for this analysis are the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) and the German In-Depth Accident Database (GIDAS). Exemplary automated driving functionalities for highways are pro- spectively evaluated and the impact on both traffic safety and driving comfort are presented using crash, near-crash and baseline data. Furthermore, relevant technical requirements for corresponding automated driving systems are derived. For an exemplary use-case, possible impacts on system functionality, availability and safety are presented. Additionally, safety potentials of installing high-performance sensors for automated systems of Level 3 and beyond when driving manually are discussed.