ISO 26262 now official International Standard

All all nine parts were approved covering all parts for “safety-related systems that include one or more E/E (electrical/electronic) systems and that are installed in series production passenger cars with a maximum gross weight up to 3.5t.” This means that applying this new international functioanl safety standard is now mandatory.  ISO 26262 will have a significant impact on how systems are designed, developed, integrated and validated.

Nine countries have been actively involved in developing the standard; Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, United Kingdom and USA. Mecel has taken an active part in the Swedish standard group, as well as having one Functional Safety expert working in the international group where a total of 30 representatives from the automotive met.

“In the competitive automotive industry manufacturers are under pressure to quickly create new features.” Dr Håkan Sivencrona, Safety Manager at Mecel explains “Some of these features improve safety, while others provide more comfort and entertainment. The software plays an important role in most of these new features, underscoring the importance of software quality that follows this new standard.“

Mecel has since 2005 been involved in a working group dedicated to set a new international standard for Functional Safety of Automotive Systems. The new standard is now approved and can be used instead of the available standards on functional safety like IEC 61508.

“With ISO 26262 a new industry structure has emerged that Mecel has helped create. Our active role in the development of ISO 26262 gives us a broad knowledge of the standard and how it can be interpreted.” Dr Hakan Sivencrona continues.