Safe automotive software

For automotive manufacturers and tier-1 suppliers, the upcoming safety standard ISO 26262 results in new requirements for the development of embedded electronics and software. In particular, the variety of driver assistance systems that autonomously influence the driving dynamics of a vehicle may have a high risk potential and require development in accordance with the normative guidelines. But especially for those systems whose function is typically not based solely on hardware but on complex software algorithms, safety certification can be very complex or even impossible. In this paper the problems of development of vehicle systems according to ISO 26262 are described. Finally an approach for a safety-oriented reference architecture is presented that introduces adaptive software safety cages. This architecture enables application of formal verification methods. Supported by multisensor data fusion this allows to reduce safety requirements for vehicle control systems.