Overview of the Second Edition of ISO 26262: Functional Safety— Road Vehicles

Functional safety is of the utmost importance in the development of safety-critical automotive systems, especially with the introduction of driver assist and automated driving systems. ISO 26262: Functional Safety – Road Vehicles, has been the de facto standard for functional safety in the automotive electronics domain since the release of its first edition in 2011. It is currently available in its second edition, published in December 2018. In this paper, we present an overview of the standard, which applies to all activities during the safety lifecycle of system development. In the concept phase of ISO 26262, the hazard and risk assessment process focuses on identifying possible hazards caused by malfunctioning behavior of electrical/electronic (E/E) safety-related systems and mitigating them through the identification of safety goals. The design phase includes system, hardware, and software development, with requirements developed from the safety goals. ISO 26262 also prescribes the functional safety management activities to be performed during the safety lifecycle and provides requirements for the supporting processes. In addition to presenting an overview of the standard, this paper highlights some major changes introduced in the second edition of ISO 26262.