A series of International Standards for the functional safety of electrical and electronic systems in road vehicles has been updated to keep pace with new and rapidly evolving technologies and be relevant to even more applications.
Published in 12 individual parts, ISO 26262, Road vehicles – Functional safety defines functional safety for all automotive electronic and electrical safety-related systems, covering their entire life cycle including the development, production, operation, service and decommissioning.
The series also details an automotive-specific, risk-based approach for determining risk classes, known as Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASILs). ASILs are established by performing a risk analysis of potential hazards based on three variables: severity, probability of exposure, and controllability by the driver.
Changes to the newly revised versions include the addition of specific requirements for semi-conductors and new requirements for motorcycles.
Susumu Akiyama, Chair of the ISO subcommittee that developed the standards, said functional safety for electrical and electronic systems in road vehicles is essential for overall quality and product safety, as well as for the manufacturer’s reputation.
“The ISO 26262 series of standards is a useful tool for the automotive industry to ensure safety of the vehicle and is generic enough to still allow some flexibility for innovation in its development,” Akiyama said.
Functional safety features form an integral part of each automotive product’s development phase— from specification and design to implementation, integration, verification, validation, and ultimately production release.