Automotive Safety: Importance of Functional Safety

Automotive safety is crucial and to ensure the electronic system is fully functional, automakers have to take different approaches.

Fremont, CA: Automotive safety means the proper functioning of an entire automotive electronic system in the events of a component malfunction. The primary goal of automotive safety is to prevent complete system failure, which might lead to loss of life and property. In the past decade, the number of parts in automobiles has increased due to an increase in comfort levels and providing driving assistance. Further, autonomous cars and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are becoming a reality. Thus, automotive systems must be foolproof, ensuring the safety of its riders.

System states failures caused due to component aging, noise, environment, or fabrication process defects cannot be prevented. The microcontroller (MCU) suppliers to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and car assemblers are all responsible for delivering highly reliable systems. These highly reliable systems need to monitor safety-critical elements such as initiating recovery mechanisms by hardware or software, reporting by every entity in the supply chain, and to returning to the correct path. 

The electronic control units have increased in number because of the proliferation of electronically controlled systems. The safety standards are pushed back into the semiconductor design flow as the number of electronics increases. This allows MCUs to report and recover from undesirable states.  Functional safety depends on various systems. Radar, driver assistance, and vision systems generate a lot of data, and automobiles have to process it continuously. A slight failure in the sensors can cause major life-threatening accidents. Thus, sensors and flow of data become paramount to safety. Even a power window requires safety measures. For instance, a passenger is stuck in an engulfed car and cannot escape because the power windows failed. In another example, brake failure can lead to fatal consequences. 

To implement safety, continual monitoring of the MCUs is not sufficient. Any errors detected must be reported, and appropriate corrective action must be taken.  A simple approach is to reset the MCU, which is excessive. Another method is based on individual signal detection and triggering of its recovery mechanism rather than logical or all signals leading to a single recovery path for every instance of the fault occurrence. Automotive safety is crucial, and a flexible approach to understanding its importance is essential as well.

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