Automotive IQ spoke with Helmut Martin of the Virtual Vehicle Competence
Center to discuss the ISO 26262. He is working on a European Project called
SafeCer that focuses on safety and reliability.
"The interpretation side is really too open and therefore it's necessary to discuss the state of practice - how we could apply the standard in a common sense."
Automotive IQ: Could you tell me about your background and your role at the Virtual Vehicle Competence Center?
Helmut Martin: From the background side, I can tell you that I've been working in the automotive industry and engaged in the field of Functional Safety for about three years. Before I started working at the Virtual Vehicle Competence Center, I was working for an automotive supplier here in Graz. There I was responsible for several functional safety aspects by supporting the development of safety relevant products, e.g. different process activities to integrate the functional safety requirements into company-wide processes. Since March 2011, I've been working at the Virtual Vehicle Competence Center for Area E – Electric/Electronic and Software to research on the topic functional safety for embedded systems. My role here is also to coordinate the contribution of the Virtual Vehicle to the European Union project, called SafeCer and also other different core activities in our embedded system group, also concerning the different aspects of functional safety.
Automotive IQ: We’ll come back to the European project, in a little bit. To start with, what do you feel are the biggest challenges to the auto industry in terms of functional safety?
H.M.: At the moment, I think the new standard has been out since November 2011 and the different companies have to get more into the standard, because some aspects of the standard are specifications that are beyond current practice so that's a little challenging to fulfill all those requirements. The other aspect is that not all of the requirements can be fulfilled at the moment, so it's also a case of working on the standard and its applicability to the different phases of development life cycle...