Automotive Functional Safety: Scope, Standards, and Perspectives on Practice

Modern automobiles include hundreds of electronic controller units, a large number of sensors and actuation modules, several in-vehicle networks, and several megabytes of software code. The goal of functional safety is to assess the potential risk of hazardous conditions resulting from malfunctioning in these components. Achieving functional safety for modern automotive systems entails a variety of complex steps including interpretation of safety standards, developing safety solutions, and making a safety case, all of which are getting constantly refined and updated as architectures, system designs, and electronic/software features are added. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of automotive safety approaches, standards, and approaches involved in safety solutions for automotive systems. We include perspectives, constraints, and requirements from the different players in the automotive supply chain and the conflicts and tradeoffs among stakeholder interests involved in safety design. Emerging trends in automotive systems and their impacts on functional safety are discussed.