What is Functional Safety?
Functional safety refers to the part of overall safety that depends on a system or equipment operating correctly in response to its inputs, including the safe management of likely operator errors, hardware failures, and environmental changes. In automotive and industrial contexts, functional safety standards such as ISO 26262 define processes and requirements to ensure that electronic and software-based systems avoid unreasonable risk due to hazards caused by malfunctioning behavior. This includes risk classification (e.g., Automotive Safety Integrity Level, or ASIL), systematic analysis (e.g., FMEA, FTA), and design measures to detect faults and mitigate their impact. Functional safety is critical in applications like autonomous vehicles, where failures could result in harm to people or property.
