International

Standard

ISO 34504
Road vehicles — Test scenarios First edition
for automated driving systems — 2024-02
Scenario categorization
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Véhicules routiers — Scénarios d'essai pour les systèmes de
conduite automatisée — Catégorisation des scénarios
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 ISO 34504:2024(en)

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 ISO 34504:2024(en)

Contents Page

Foreword..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... iv
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. v
1 Scope.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1
2 Normative references.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1
3 Terms and definitions................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1
4 Categorization..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
4.1 ​Objectives..................................................................................................................................................................................................................1
4.2 General.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................1
4.3 Inputs to this clause......................................................................................................................................................................................... 2
4.3.1 Informative references............................................................................................................................................................... 2
4.4 Requirements and recommendations..............................................................................................................................................2
4.4.1 General......................................................................................................................................................................................................2
4.4.2 Purpose of tags.................................................................................................................................................................................. 3
4.4.3 Extension of tags and trees of tags.................................................................................................................................. 4
4.4.4 Tags for a dynamic entity.........................................................................................................................................................4
4.4.5 Tags for the scenery elements...........................................................................................................................................16
4.4.6 Tags for the environment conditions..........................................................................................................................31
4.4.7 Tags for additional information of a scenario.....................................................................................................37
4.4.8 Tags for the intended test usage......................................................................................................................................42
4.4.9 Using tags for specifying scenario categories.....................................................................................................42
4.5
iTeh Standards
Work products.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 46
Annex A (informative) Examples of scenario categories........................................................................................................................ 47
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Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 51

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Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through
ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee
has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations,
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with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types
of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the
ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
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patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that
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For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions
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This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 22, Road vehicles, Subcommittee SC 33, Vehicle
dynamics, chassis components and driving automation systems testing.
Any feedback or questions on this Document
document should be Preview
directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.
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 ISO 34504:2024(en)

Introduction
Test and verification of automated driving systems (ADS) is one of the main challenges for the introduction
of ADS into the market. Scenario-based testing is an approach for prospective verification of ADS that is
broadly supported in the automotive field. It is expected that many test scenarios will be used to conduct
the validation and verification of ADS, e.g. see ISO 34502. It is common practice to use some form of
categorization of the scenarios.
The goal of this document is to propose a way to categorize scenarios. Scenario databases, such as the
German In-Depth Accident Study (GIDAS)[2], the Community database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe
(CARE)[3], the Initiative for the GLobal harmonization of Accident Data (IGLAD)[4], road safety from the
government of the United Kingdom[5], and the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) General
Estimates System (GES) from the United States[6], already contain categories, but these categories are
generally not shared among different databases. This document provides a method to harmonize the way
scenarios are categorized. To enable the scenario categorization, “tags” are defined as meta-attributes that
provide an additional source of information for each of the scenarios. A scenario category is defined using
tags, such that all scenarios that share the same tags are considered to belong to that scenario category.
NOTE This document does not provide a hierarchical structure for the scenarios. There are many ways to provide
a hierarchical structure and there is no best way to do this. For example, scenarios can be structured based on the
road layout or based on the driving behaviour of a vehicle. The most suitable way to structure the scenarios depends
on the application.

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International Standard ISO 34504:2024(en)

Road vehicles — Test scenarios for automated driving

systems — Scenario categorization

1 Scope
This document defines an approach for the categorization of scenarios by providing tags that carry
information about the scenarios.
This document is applicable to SAE level 3 to SAE level 5 Automated Driving System (ADS)[19].

2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes
requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references,
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 34501, Road vehicles — Test scenarios for automated driving systems — Vocabulary

3 Terms and definitions

iTeh Standards
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 34501 apply.
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ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: Document Preview
available at https://​w ww​
.iso​.org/​obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://​w ww​.electropedia​.org/​
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4 Categorization

4.1 ​Objectives
The objective of this clause is to provide a way to categorize scenarios.

4.2 General
A scenario category refers to a set of scenarios that share one or more characteristics. Tags are attached to
a scenario for the purpose of categorizing the scenarios. A given scenario is part of a scenario category if
all tags of the scenario category are also part of the tags that are applicable to the given scenario. Scenario
categories do not need to be mutually exclusive. A standardized set of tags for defining scenario categories
makes sharing and transferring scenario (categories) between different entities easier.
Scenario categorization can be used to structure the test cases for ADS. Another application of scenario
categorization is the scenario assignment for the assessment of ADS within a given Operational Design
Domain (ODD) because it might be easier to relate an ODD to scenario categories instead of relating an
ODD to all possible scenarios. Scenario categorization can also be used to select scenarios from a scenario
database or scenario library by using tags or a combination of tags.
In some cases, there is a need of having generic scenario categories – and thus a wide variety among the
scenarios belonging to the scenario category – and, in other cases, there is a need of having specific scenario
categories without much variety among the scenarios in the scenario category. For some systems, one may
be interested in a very specific set of scenarios, while for another system one might be interested in a set

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 ISO 34504:2024(en)

of scenarios with a high variety. To accommodate this, tags can be structured in hierarchical trees. The
different layers in a tree can be regarded as different abstraction levels.
If the provided tags do not adequately represent a specific characteristic of a scenario, stakeholders may
extend the provided tags. This applies to tags that provide a more specific description of a characteristic
described by one of the tags of this clause. It may also apply to tags that describe a characteristic of a scenario
that is not addressed in this document.
The actual implementation of the tags into a specification is out of scope of this document. Stakeholders may
choose to support, for example, scenario hierarchy whereby a specific scenario (category) inherits tags from
another scenario (category). It is also possible to combine tags of the same level to create a new scenario
category, e.g. a definition of a scenario category that includes the wind tag “light breeze”, “gentle breeze”,
“moderate breeze”, or “fresh breeze”.

4.3 Inputs to this clause

4.3.1 Informative references

a) ISO 34502[1]
b) ISO 34503 [7]
c) ASAM OpenLABEL[8]
d) Scenario Categories for the Assessment of Automated Vehicles[9]
e)
iTeh Standards
Proposal for a second iteration of the New Assessment/Test Method for Automated Driving – Master
Document, ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRVA/2022/2[10]

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f) HEADSTART deliverable on the integration of simulation and physical testing [11]

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4.4 Requirements and recommendations

4.4.1 General
ISO 34504:2024
A scenario category shall be defined by a collection of tags, where this collection contains one or multiple
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tags. A scenario category shall comprise scenarios for which these tags are applicable. A scenario category
Y shall include a scenario category X if this scenario category X contains the same (structure of) tags as this
scenario category Y.
NOTE 1 This implies that if scenario category X includes scenario category Y, then scenario category X comprises all
scenarios that scenario category Y comprises.

EXAMPLE Figure 1 illustrates this, where three scenario categories are shown:

a) the red circle denotes the scenario category with the tag “daytime”;

b) the green circle denotes the scenario category with the tag “heavy rain”;

c) the overlap of the red and green circles denotes the scenario category with the tags “daytime” and “heavy rain”.

In this example, let X be the scenario category with tags “daytime” and “heavy rain” and let Y be the scenario category
with the tag “daytime”. Since X contains the same tag as Y, Y includes X. Figure 1 illustrates this, as Y (the circle with
tag “daytime”) fully overlaps the area that represents X (the intersection area of both circles). As a result, both the X
and Y comprise the scenario occurring at daytime with heavy rain, i.e. Y comprises all scenarios of X.

NOTE 2 Figure 1 is simplified in the sense that there are typically many other characteristics considered for
categorizing scenarios.


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 ISO 34504:2024(en)

Figure 1 — An example of a relation between scenarios and scenario categories

In addition to tags, the scenario attributes can be used for allocating the scenarios into scenario categories.
In that case, a scenario attribute shall be considered as equivalent to a tag. For example, a scenario that
contains heavy rain can be categorized into the scenario category “heavy rain” even though the scenario
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does not contain the tag “heavy rain”.

4.4.2 Purpose of tags

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The tags of a scenario contain information about the scenario. In order to indicate the purpose of a tag, the
Document
kind of information the tag provides
not limited to:
shall be indicated. APreview
tag shall address a range of topics, including but

a) dynamic entities; ISO 34504:2024

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b) scenery elements;
c) environmental conditions;
d) additional information of a scenario;
e) intended test usage.
NOTE 1 Figure 2 visualizes the different groups of tags.

Figure 2 — Groups of tags

NOTE 2 In most cases, the purpose of the tags is to provide qualitative information. Stakeholders can specify more
details regarding the quantification of tags. For example, the tag “faster” can be applied to a dynamic entity that is
moving “faster” than the subject vehicle. The exact meaning of “faster” is not further specified in this document. A
stakeholder can choose to apply the tag if the dynamic entity is moving at a higher speed than the subject vehicle, but it
can also, for example, apply the tag only when a dynamic entity is moving with a speed faster than 1 m/s for a duration
of at least 1 s.


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NOTE 3 To illustrate that the meaning of the tags can be ambiguous, consider the tag “in front of subject”, which
is used to indicate that a dynamic entity is in front of the subject vehicle. Consider the bus in Figure 3 as the subject
vehicle. Clearly, the tag “in front of subject” does not apply to the left-most car, indicated with the label “car 1”, of
Figure 3. However, for “car 6”, the tag applies, since this passenger car is fully in front of the subject vehicle. For the
remaining four passenger cars, it depends on how “in front of” is defined. For example, the front of “car 2” is behind the
front of the bus, but the front of “car 2” is in front of the rear of the bus. The rear of “car 3” is in front of the rear of the
bus. Similarly, the centre of “car 4” is ahead of the centre of the bus and the front of “car 5” is in front of the bus.

Key
1 car 1
2 car 2
3 car 3
4 car 4
5 car 5
6 car 6
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Figure 3 — A bus and six passenger cars; it is unclear which cars are in front of the bus
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4.4.3
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Extension of tags and trees of tags

The tags shall be structured into trees and each layer shall represent a different abstraction level. If a
scenario category contains a tag at a certain level, all the lower-level tags may be applicable.
ISO 34504:2024
Stakeholders may extend the list of tags if those tags that are specified do not adequately describe a scenario
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characteristic. While the tags are extensible, any extension which conflicts with the specified tags shall be
avoided.
NOTE Even if tags are at the same layer in the same tree of tags, they do not need to be mutually exclusive.

4.4.4 Tags for a dynamic entity

For a dynamic entity, the tags shall address:

a) road user type;
b) longitudinal action;
c) lateral action;
d) mixed action;
e) state or initial state;
f) role of a dynamic entity with respect to the subject vehicle;
g) enhancing conspicuity;
h) visibility;
i) collision information.

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 ISO 34504:2024(en)

If, for a dynamic entity, no tags are mentioned for one or more of the aforementioned items, it shall be
assumed that any of the tags of that item may be or may not be applicable for the scenarios that the scenario
category comprises.
EXAMPLE A dynamic entity of a scenario category only contains tags for the “road user type”. As a result, the
scenarios that the scenario category comprises contain at least one dynamic entity with the tags for the “road user
type” as specified and this dynamic entity can contain any tag related to “longitudinal action”, “lateral action”, etc.

4.4.4.1 Road user type

At the top level, the tags for the road user type should be:
a) vehicle;
b) pedestrian;
c) cyclist;
d) animal;
e) inanimate obstacle.
To further specify a vehicle, the following tags can be used:
— passenger car;
— bus;
— school bus; iTeh Standards
— truck;
— tram;
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— goods vehicle; Document Preview
— dangerous goods vehicle;
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long, large vehicle;
— vehicle transporting protruding cargo;
— vehicle towing trailers;
— vehicle towing combination trailers;
— special convoy, slow-moving vehicle;
— caravan/recreational vehicle, including towing trailers;
— agricultural vehicle;
— fire truck;
— ambulance;
— police vehicle;
— rescue vehicle;
— street sweeper;
— road sprinkler;
— training car;


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 ISO 34504:2024(en)

— crane, Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM);

— other automated/connected (V2V) vehicle;
— disabled (broken-down) vehicle.
To further specify a pedestrian, the following tags can be used:
— child;
— adult;
— person with disabilities;
— hearing-impaired pedestrian;
— visually-impaired pedestrian;
— road-works crew;
— police officer (on foot);
— person directing traffic;
— person pushing stroller;
— person in wheelchair;
— motorists on the roadside (e.g. person next to stranded vehicle, changing tire).
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To further specify a cyclist, the following tags can be used:
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— e-Bike user; Document Preview
— skater (roller, skateboard);
— motorcycle; ISO 34504:2024
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— moped/scooter;
— powered three-wheeler;
— quadricycle;
— self-balancing scooter.
To further specify an animal, the following tags can be used:
— small size animal;
— medium size animal;
— large size animal.
To further specify an inanimate obstacle, the following tags can be used:
— stationary vehicle;
— debris;
— construction equipment;
— moving obstacle.


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 ISO 34504:2024(en)

NOTE 1 Figure 4 visualizes the tree of tags for the road user type.

NOTE 2 The tags for the road user type are based on ongoing VMAD/FRAV UNECE discussions in the Other Road
User workstream[12].

NOTE 3 A moving obstacle can refer to blowing debris like a tumbleweed or a plastic tarp.

NOTE 4 A disabled (broken-down) vehicle can have its emergency lights on, and an emergency triangle can be
located behind this vehicle. A stationary vehicle can refer to a parked vehicle.

NOTE 5 For categorizing animals based on their size, the tag “small size animal” can apply to animals shorter and
thinner than 0,5 m, while animals larger or wider than 1 m can be tagged with “large size animal”. All other animals
are then tagged with “medium size animal”.

NOTE 6 A combination of the tags is also possible, e.g. both “passenger car” and “disabled (broken-down) vehicle"
can apply.

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Figure 4 — Tree of tags for the road user type


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