Automotive Safety Integrity Levels – Draft of ISO 26262 published

Date: 9/12/2009

Source: www.iso.org/, conferences.theiet.org/, www.itsinternational.com/ 

The ISO standard for functional safety in road vehicles is now available for review as a Draft International Standard (DIS). This is a landmark standard for vehicle manufacturers and the automotive sector, because it formalises the methods for using “Safety Integrity Levels (SILs)” in the system design phase of cars. SILs specify the ‘amount of design effort’ that is required for components in the vehicle that have a safety function.

An article in ITS International states that:

“Although the current iteration of ISO 26262 concentrates on discrete safety systems, such as stability control, future iterations will also look at interaction cooperative infrastructures. Infrastructure stakeholders are therefore being encouraged to get involved in the consultation process which will lead to a finalised standard.”

SILs are determined through a risk assessment approach, by identifying and classifying hazards. SILs originated in the process industries through ISO/IEC 61508:1998 and have been applied to other industries. The UK-based MISRA Guidelines attempted to adapt SILs to the automotive sector, and now ISO 26262 represents the formalised international version of MISRA.

The Framework Architecture and Classification for ITS (FACITS) Project, which was funded by InnovITS, proposed a similar procedure for all ITS. The FACITS process uses integrity levels as part of an ITS risk assessment that involves all ITS stakeholders. An overview of the FACITS Process can be found here: www.innovits.com/its-ktn/.

The 5th IET Seminar on SIL Determination was held on 3 December 2009, which included a talk on the new ISO 26262 standard. Further information can be found at the source links above.

Keywords: In-vehicle systems, Safety, Standard