Safety practices are becoming more regulated as industries adopt a standardized set of practices for designing and testing products. ISO 26262 addresses the needs for an automotive-specific international standard that focuses on safety critical components. ISO 26262 is a derivative of IEC 61508, the generic functional safety standard for electrical and electronic (E/E) systems.
Increasing complexity throughout the automotive industry is resulting in increased efforts to provide safety-compliant systems. For example, modern automobiles use by-wire systems such as throttle-by-wire. This control unit analyzes several factors such as engine speed, vehicle speed, and pedal position.
It is a challenge of the automotive industry to test and validate systems like throttle-by-wire. The goal of ISO 26262 is to provide a unifying safety standard for all automotive E/E systems. Since the publication of Draft International Standard (DIS) of ISO 26262, ISO 26262 has gained traction in the automotive industry.