Functional Safety for Road Vehicles

Given today’s new E-mobility and automated driving approaches, new challenges are arising and further issues concerning “Road Vehicle Safety” and “Road Traffic Safety” have to be resolved. To address the growing complexity of vehicle functions, as well as the increasing need to accommodate interdisciplinary project teams, previous development approaches now have to be reconsidered, and system engineering approaches and proven management systems need to be supplemented or wholly redefined.

The book presents a continuous system development process, starting with the basic requirements of quality management and continuing until the release of a vehicle and its components for road use. Attention is paid to the necessary definition of the respective development item, the threat-, hazard- and risk analysis, safety concepts and their relation to architecture development, while the book also addresses the aspects of product realization in mechanics, electronics and software as well as for subsequent testing, verification, integration and validation phases.

In November 2011, requirements for the Functional Safety (FuSa) of road vehicles were first published in ISO 26262. The processes and methods described here are intended to show developers how vehicle systems can be implemented according to ISO 26262, so that their compliance with the relevant standards can be demonstrated as part of a safety case, including audits, reviews and assessments.