# Rules of the Road: Safety and Liveness Guarantees for Autonomous Vehicles

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.14148 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.14148/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 28 Nov 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [The Reasonable Crowd: Towards evidence-based and interpretable models of driving behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.13507/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The ability to guarantee safety and progress for all vehicles is vital to the success of the autonomous vehicle industry. We present a framework for designing autonomous vehicle behavior in a way that is safe and guarantees progress for all agents. In this paper, we first introduce a new game paradigm which we term the quasi-simultaneous game. We then define an agent protocol that all agents must use to make decisions in this quasi-simultaneous game setting. According to the protocol, agents first select an intended action using a behavioral profile. Then, the protocol defines whether an agent has precedence to take its intended action or must take a sub-optimal action. The protocol ensures safety under all traffic conditions and liveness for all agents under `sparse' traffic conditions. We provide proofs of correctness of the protocol and validate our results in simulation.