Towards benchmarking of functional safety in the automotive industry

Abstract

Functional safety is becoming increasingly important in the automotive industry to deal with the growing reliance on the electrical and/or electronic (E/E) systems and the associated complexities. The introduction of ISO 26262, a new standard for functional safety in road vehicles, has made it even more important to adopt a systematic approach of evaluating functional safety. However, standard assessment methods of benchmarking functional safety of automotive systems are not available as of today. This is where the BeSafe (Benchmarking of Functional Safety) project comes into the picture. BeSafe project aims to lay the foundation for benchmarking functional safety of automotive E/E systems. In this paper, we present a brief overview of the project along with the benchmark targets that we have identified as relevant for the automotive industry, assuming three abstraction layers (model, software, hardware). We then define and discuss a set of benchmark measures. Next, we propose a benchmark framework encompassing fault/error models, methods and the required tool support. This paper primarily focuses on functional safety benchmarking from the Safety Element out of Context (SEooC) viewpoint. Finally, we present some preliminary results and highlight potential future works. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

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