Development phase in accordance with ISO 26262

ISO 26262 is considered to represent the “state of the art” for the development of vehicle electronic systems, specifically of safety relevant systems in passenger vehicles. ISO 26262 is an automotive interpretation of the generic functional safety standard IEC 61508 [1]. Premium segment passenger vehicles are equipped with a vast number of control units to deliver sophisticated functions, from the standard ABS (Anti-lock braking system) to the novel intelligent park assist. This reliance on electronic systems has turned the attention to functional safety, so that the emphasis is in addressing hazards that can result from malfunctions on the electronics systems, as per the defined scope in ISO 26262. The development phase of ISO 26262 (in Parts 4, 5 and 6 of the standard) follows on from the activities of the concept phase (Part 3 of the standard) [3]. The concept phase activities are based on preliminary architectural descriptions of the “item” and high level requirements to satisfy overarching safety goals and are intended to be implementation-independent. However in the development phase the specific objective is to determine how those requirements are implemented in technical solutions by the different elements that constitute the item. The design phase activities of ISO 26262 Part 4 are concerned with the design of a specific system implementation, still at an architectural level, with the detail of hardware and software design and implementation covered by the requirements of Parts 5 and 6 respectively.