SGS Advises on Increasingly Important Functional Safety Requirements for Automotive Electronics
Online, October 13, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Guaranteeing the safety of automotive electronic systems is essential to ensure that personal injuries are minimised, and that the significant legal and economic consequences of product recalls are avoided. For these reasons, automotive electronic systems must be developed according to the relevant product liability requirements.
Industry Regulations for Automotive Safety
The draft international standard ISO 26262, to be released in its final form by May 2011, is poised to replace the broader IEC 61508 standard as a specific automotive safety standard. Where the existing standard has been applicable to a range of electrical/electronic/programmable products, the new standard focuses on the full road vehicle electrical/electronic product life cycle. This greater level of focus in the new standard will make it more suitable for automotive development.
Future Developments
With the new standard in place, changes and alterations in the product development process, from concept phase through to decommissioning, will become necessary.
In ISO26262, safety analysis becomes an integral part of product life-cycle development. The standard requires that ASIL C (Automotive Safety Integrity Level) analysis must be independently performed, along with an additional independent safety analysis (http://www.de.sgs.com/de/failure_and_damage_de-2?). This analysis must be done as a core part of systems development, and must play an active role by being applied to improve systems designs, especially where existing designs are found not to meet safety targets.
Automotive software development maturity measures will change to ensure that safety issues are fully analysed. Existing SPICE or CMMI measures for degrees of software maturity (http://www.de.sgs.com/automotive_de_index/spice-de.htm) will no longer be considered enough. It should therefore be a target for all enterprises to alter their current development processes to satisfy ISO 26262 requirements. Enterprises should understand that the domain of safety analysis is liable to continue to change significantly.
Issues related to safety requirements for E-Mobility
A key issue for those currently developing E-mobility systems is to address safety issues in the absence of specific appendages for electric propulsion and storage systems, including in particular high voltage batteries. This poses a challenge where legal requirements and technical standards may not offer a thorough guide to the implementation of safe E-mobility systems (http://www.de.sgs.com/automotive_de_index/value_chain_de-2.htm). As such, additional safeguarding mechanisms are required, covering the mechanical, electrical and chemical aspects of electrical power trains. This situation shows the kinds of challenges facing manufactures and systems suppliers when managing technological change.
Support available for functional safety development
SGS provides a range of services in the area of "Safety for E-Mobility". These include testing, certification, safety analysis, and selection of training courses offered at an advanced level. These services are offered at the Competence Center for Functional Safety at SGS TUV Germany, as part of a global service network covering the automotive, semiconductor, automation, processing and software industries.
Find out more at www.sgstuev.de
Contact details:
SGS Consumer Testing Services
Martin Schmidt
Leader of the Competence Center Functional Safety - SGS-TÃœV GmbH - Ein Unternehmen der SGS-Gruppe und des TÃœV Saarland e.V.
Hofmannstr. 50, 81379 Munchen, Germany
Phone number: +49 89 787475 270
E-mail: cts.media@sgs.com
Website: www.sgstuev.de