Rapid advances are being made in road vehicle technologies across the globe today, yet it is critical to guarantee the safety of these new vehicle electronic technologies. To maintain a leading position in the automotive industry, a suite of updated international standards governing the functional safety of electrical and electronic systems for road vehicles has just been released.

The automobile has undergone a long evolutionary journey dating back to the internal combustion engine era a century ago, even to the days of manually cranked car windows. Nowadays, nearly all vehicle operations can seemingly be completed at the press of a button or via simple voice commands. Behind these incredible automotive functions lies a wide array of electronic technologies that continue to evolve at a steady pace.

Nevertheless, any sophisticated technology carries inherent risks. The ISO 26262 series of standards entitled Road vehicles — Functional Safety is designed to mitigate such risks by providing guidance and rules for the functional safety of electrical and electronic systems installed on road vehicles.

The newly updated ISO 26262 international standard consists of twelve parts in total. It has been revised to keep pace with fast-emerging new technologies for road vehicles and expand its applicability to a broader range of scenarios.

Mr. Susumu Akiyama, Chair of the ISO subcommittee that developed this series of standards, stated that the functional safety of electrical equipment and electronic systems for road vehicles is vital to the overall quality, safety performance of vehicles and the reputation of manufacturers.

He remarked: "The ISO 26262 series serves as an effective tool for the automotive industry to ensure road vehicle safety, and its high adaptability allows it to be extended to additional application fields throughout its development."

Updates incorporated in the new version include new requirements covering semiconductors and motorcycles.

ISO 26262 establishes a full lifecycle philosophy for automotive safety (management, development, production, operation, service and decommissioning) and delivers necessary support throughout all these lifecycle phases. The standard covers the complete development process for functional safety, including requirement planning, design, implementation, integration, verification, validation and configuration.

Based on the level of safety risks, ISO 26262 classifies safety requirements for a system or its individual components into Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASIL) ranging from A to D. ASIL ratings are derived from risk analysis of potential hazards built upon three variables: Severity, Exposure and Controllability. Severity refers to the extent of harm to personnel or property if a hazard materializes; for instance, an electronic lock malfunction poses lower severity than a brake failure. Exposure describes the probability that people or property will be affected when a hazard occurs; abnormal chassis noise features lower exposure than faults in passenger seats. Controllability measures the degree to which drivers and other users can take proactive actions to avoid damage when a hazard arises; slow tire leakage offers higher controllability than complete brake failure.

The ISO 26262 series of standards was developed by SC 32 (Electrical and electronic components and general systems), a subcommittee of ISO/TC 22 (Road vehicles). The secretariat is undertaken by JISC, the Japanese national member body of ISO.