Functional safety and EMC for the automotive industry

The new era of safety related electronic systems in vehicles puts new demands on the manufacturer to prove reliability and safety of the systems. Standards that earlier have been used by the industry to prove compliance with demands on functional safety are difficult to implement for the automotive industry. Difficulties also arise when trying to prove immunity against electromagnetic disturbances for a vehicle in the real world. The standardisation organisations have now started the laborious work to adapt the standards to the reality in the automotive industry. This paper discusses the arising problems when existing standards are employed to comply with the demands on both electromagnetic compatibility and functional safety.