There is an ever-widening range of automotive electrical and/or electronic (E/E/PE) systems such as adaptive driver assistance systems, anti-lock braking systems, steering and airbags. Their increasing levels of integration and connectivity provide almost as many challenges as their proliferation, with non-critical systems such as entertainment systems sharing the same communications infrastructure as steering, braking and control systems. The net result is a necessity for exacting functional safety development processes, from requirements specification, design, implementation, integration, verification, validation, and through to configuration.    

ISO 26262 “Road vehicles – Functional safety” was published in response to this explosion in automotive E/E/PE system complexity, and the associated risks to public safety. Since the advent of the connected car, security too must be considered as part of this environment. Automotive applications are no longer isolated, static, fixed function, device specific implementations, but are now vulnerable to potentially dangerous attack.  This technical briefing is an introduction to both the ISO 26262 standard, its interpretation in the light of automotive connectivity, and the way in which automated tools can help achieve its objectives.  

• The Background to the ISO26262 functional safety standard 
• ISO 26262 process objectives 
• System design 
• Software architectural design 
• Software unit design and implementation 
• Software architectural design and unit implementation 
• Software unit testing 
• Software integration and testing 
• Bi-directional traceability 
• Confidence in the use of software tools