Articles – Magazine of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS

Interview with Delphine Kervarec-Vicq
“Standards are key to understand each other in an extended eco system”

Delphine Kervarec-Vicq, Product Safety Director at Valeo, is a new member of the program committee for Safetronic, the international conference on holistic safety for road vehicles. In an interview with Safe Intelligence online magazine, she talks about her motivation for joining the committee and explains the importance of safety for automated driving.

Autonomous driving

September 30, 2025

Safetronic 2025: Preview
Without safety, new mobility solutions will fall to the wayside

Not only management consultancies, but also other strategic players see the increasing importance of Remote Driving Systems (RDS) for the transportation of the future. But is the concept safe enough? An extensive two-year operation without safety drivers has confirmed the technical feasibility and safety of RDS. And not only that: a comprehensive training framework for Remote Drivers has demonstrably improved performance and safety.

Safety engineering

September 15, 2025

Interview with Reinhard Stolle
“Bringing the best technology safely into the vehicle”

Ensuring the safety of AI functions in vehicles remains a challenge that must be mastered step by step. However, visible progress is being made on the road to autonomous driving, says Dr. Reinhard Stolle, deputy director of the Fraunhofer IKS. And the success of ChatGPT & Co. is also likely to be leveraged for highly automated vehicles.

Autonomous driving

September 12, 2025

Rail
Safe.trAIn: AI as train conductor on regional railways

Autonomous driving is not only set to conquer the roads, but also offers enormous potential for driverless trains in rail transport. Proof of this is the safe.trAIn project, in which Fraunhofer IKS has taken on the central task of methodically assuring the AI functions.

Artificial intelligence

September 4, 2025

Machine Learning
Metrics as an indicator of AI safety: is that enough?

The performance of machine learning (ML) models is typically assessed using metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, etc. But how trustworthy are these single point estimates really? Such metrics reflect reality only partially and can provide us with a false sense of safety. Especially in safety-critical areas, this can be dangerous. Fraunhofer IKS develops a formal framework for the quantification of uncertainty which aims to make the residual risk “more computable”.

Safety engineering

Papers

August 28, 2025

Artificial Intelligence
Can Generative AI Revolutionize Modern Healthcare?

Artificial intelligence, especially large language models (LLMs), are seen by many as a key resource for an overburdened healthcare system. AI-supported automation in particular could quickly relieve the burden of knowledge management tasks. Before this can happen, security and safety challenges as well as legal requirements must be taken into account. Fraunhofer IKS research is dedicated to both of these aspects.

AI in medicine

August 21, 2025

Artificial Intelligence
Railway AI Systems: The Importance of Operational Design Domain (ODD)

How can rail transportation become more attractive and efficient? AI systems that are integrated into rail operations should provide an answer to this question. However, this is associated with a number of challenges. Safety is at the top of the list, but passenger numbers should also increase.

Artificial intelligence

August 14, 2025

Industry 4.0
Toolbox offers more flexibility in production

The ability of a production system to adapt autonomously to changing conditions promises efficiency gains and cost benefits. This also applies to subsequent change orders in the production process - a field of application for the new tool set from Fraunhofer IKS, which enables flexible and resilient production.

Industry 4.0

August 7, 2025

Autonomous driving
Where driverless cars still have some catching up to do

Autonomous driving is showing promising results in defined areas. However, serious challenges can arise when driverless cars are exposed to the unpredictability of everyday road traffic. Three examples illustrate these problems.

Autonomous driving

August 1, 2025

Safetronic 2025
Focus on holistic safety for road vehicles

In the run-up to the 2026 anniversary, this year's Safetronic will once again present itself with strong topics and exciting presentations. And that's not all: the international symposium for the holistic safety of road vehicles is the annual industry get-together for safety experts from the automotive and supplier industry and related sectors.

Autonomous driving

July 24, 2025

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