Articles – Magazine of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS

Safetronic 2025
Safety remains a challenge

Holistic safety for road vehicles is the focus of the annual Safetronic conference (November 12–13, 2025, in Leinfelden-Echterdingen). In a video discussion, Fraunhofer IKS Director Prof. Dr. Mario Trapp and Program comittee member Hans-Leo Ross, CARIAD, talk about the future of mobility.

Autonomous driving

October 29, 2025

Safetronic 2025: Preview
What is an acceptable risk? A proposal

The safety of a product, i.e., not causing harm, is a crucial property for its persistent success on the market and avoidance of legal risks for the manufacturer. However, since perfect safety is typically not achievable, the question what defines acceptable safety and what defines acceptable risks, i.e., risk acceptance criteria (RAC), arises.

Safety engineering

October 14, 2025

Interview with Jessica Kelly
"At Fraunhofer IKS I would say we have a strong representation of women within our team"

The days of hollow “women's power” phrases are over. This has long since become a social demand for equal opportunities for women, which is clearly formulated, emphatically demanded and often put into practice - albeit with varying degrees of commitment. Jessica Kelly, who has been a researcher at the institute since 2022, explains what it looks like in science and at Fraunhofer IKS.

Interviews

October 13, 2025

AI in medicine
Using AI for facial fracture detection

Consultation projects play a crucial role in fulfilling the Fraunhofer mission of translating cutting-edge research into industry applications. Recently, Fraunhofer IKS cooperated with the South Korean company ZIOVISION on AI-based facial fracture segmentation from medical images. The successful outcome of the project demonstrates the potential benefits such collaborations offer to both partners.

AI in medicine

October 7, 2025

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

Interview with Alexandre Sawczuk da Silva
»An international team can strengthen the quality of the work we deliver«

Research teams at the Fraunhofer IKS live and breathe diversity. The researchers come from a total of 25 countries. Dr. Alexandre Sawczuk da Silva from Brazil is one of them. In this interview, he describes his path to Fraunhofer research.

Interviews

September 19, 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 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

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