FuSa

Functional safety (FuSa) is essential in the automotive industry, especially with the increasing production and use of autonomous vehicles. Without FuSa, autonomous and manual vehicles would not be as safe. 

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What is FuSa?

Functional safety definition: Functional safety (FuSa) refers to a set of engineering processes and design principles aimed at reducing the risk of injury or damage caused by system failures. It plays a critical role across various industries, especially in automotive, where safety is paramount. 

​​​FuSa is designed to eliminate unreasonable risks by ensuring that systems behave predictably, even when faults occur. This predictable behavior is achieved through a combination of robust design, fault detection and automated safety mechanisms. In modern applications, FuSa systems often rely on large datasets and advanced inference models to detect and respond to potential hazards in real time. 

Functional safety includes these key components: 

• Fault detection and diagnostics 
• Self-diagnosis 
• Hardware safety mechanisms 

In the automotive industry, functional safety ensures that the hardware, software and system architecture in vehicles, especially autonomous and semiautonomous vehicles, function correctly and safely under all operating conditions. 

How does FuSa work?

FuSa is an end-to-end process, important from the initial automotive design phase through to final production of autonomous and semiautonomous vehicles. It guides these processes to ensure the vehicles meet certain safety and quality levels while minimizing risk. 

Establishing measures early in the design process is vital to prevent potential safety issues and to ensure that subsequent production stages proceed smoothly. These measures include hazard and risk analysis (HARA), automotive safety integrity level (ASIL) and fault tree analysis (FTA). 

What is the history of FuSa?

Functional safety has been a vital aspect of product development across various industries for over 60 years: 

• 1960s, space race: Functional safety was prominent in NASA’s Apollo program, with rigorous risk and safety testing ensuring smooth space missions. 
• 1970s, the emergence of commercial digital electronics: The increasing availability of digital electronics in the 1970s necessitated stringent safety regulations and testing to ensure these electronics were safe for household use. An increasing number of moving parts within these digital systems, such as voltage and clock monitoring circuits in microcontrollers, meant a higher risk of software or hardware failure, making functional safety in their design process vital. 
• 1990s, FuSa and the healthcare sector: Functional safety became more prominent in the healthcare industry during the 1990s, driven by the development of devices like pacemakers and infusion pumps. These advancements required enhanced safety protocols to ensure proper functionality post-operation and to minimize the risk device rejection. 
• 2011, emergence of ISO 26262 standards: Industry-specific FuSa standards emerged, including ISO 26262, for automobiles to ensure that vehicles met acceptable safety standards. ISO 26262 involves both highlighting safety issues and implementing safety mechanisms to ensure these commercial vehicles are as safe as possible. 

What are key types of FuSa?

Although functional safety has uses across various industries, FuSa within the automotive industry can be divided into three different levels. 

System-level FuSa considers the safety of the whole automotive product. One example of system-level automotive functional safety is ADAS. ​​Advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) provide additional assistance to vehicle drivers to make journeys safer. This level of FuSa includes how each automotive component interacts and works together to ensure the safety of the overall vehicle. 

Hardware-level FuSa ensures that the mechanical and physical components of the vehicle are working as safely as possible. This level can include parts such as brakes and steering wheels. 

Software-level FuSa ensures that every critical software component within the vehicle is working as it should. These components are more common in autonomous vehicles due to the absence of manual or human intervention. Because of the autonomous nature, rigorous software testing for functional safety is much more important.

How is FuSa used?

Functional safety is across various aspects of the automotive industry. For example, FuSa manages risks associated with high-voltage systems and energy storage in electric vehicles, ensuring they are safe for public use. 

Autonomous vehicles also undergo extensive safety checks to ensure they operate safely. FuSa ensures that every aspect meets the correct standards, such as ISO 26262. 

While functional safety focuses on mitigating risks associated with hardware and software failures, SOTIF (safety of the intended functionality) addresses the performance limitations of safety functions. SOTIF ensures that safety functions perform correctly under all conditions, including unexpected scenarios. This assurance is particularly important for autonomous vehicles, where sensors and systems must reliably interpret and respond to complex environments.