I recently participated in a training course for ISO 26262 a standard adapted from IEC 61508 to provide effective safety-related systems controls for Electrical and/or Electronic (E/E) hardware and software systems within road vehicles throughout their life-cycle.

Safety and the proliferation of computer aided or controlled systems are key issues for future automobile development. New functionalities in not only areas such as driver assistance, propulsion, in vehicle dynamics control and active and passive safety systems increasingly touch the domain of system safety engineering. ISO 26262 will strengthen our ability to provide safe system development with evidence that all reasonable system safety objectives are satisfied.  ISO 26262 includes guidance to avoid or reduce risks through a systemic approach in development and implementation of appropriate requirements and processes.

ISO 26262 applies to a number of technologies such as mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic, and programmable electronics. System safety is achieved through a number of safety measures at various levels of the automotive product life cycle (management, development, production, operation, service, decommissioning.

ISO 26262;

a)     provides an automotive specific risk-based approach for determining integrity levels [Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASIL)];

1. a. Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL)
   1. i.    one of four levels to specify the item‘s (1.69) or element‘s (1.32) necessary requirements of ISO 26262 and safety measures (1.110) to apply for avoiding an unreasonable residual risk (1.97), with D representing the most stringent and A the least stringent level

b)    uses ASILs for specifying the applicable requirements of  ISO 26262 for avoiding unreasonable residual risk; and

c)     provides requirements for validation and confirmation measures to ensure a sufficient and acceptable level of safety being achieved.

d)    provides requirements for the relation with suppliers.

ISO 26262 promotes functional safety as influenced by the development process (including such activities as requirements specification, design, implementation, integration, verification, validation and configuration), the production and service processes (including decommissioning) and by the management processes.

Although ISO 26262 is concerned with functional safety of E/E systems, it provides a framework within which safety-related systems in any technology can be considered.