Functional safety standards guide manufacturers to develop products in a performance-based process that avoids exposing people to an unacceptable level of risk—and automotive functional safety standards, such as ISO 26262, do so for automotive manufacturers.
The significance of product and functional safety has been on the rise due to increasing system complexity and the reliance on software of today’s automotive systems. As demand for complex products continues to grow, auto makers would do well to invest in functional safety.
Manufacturers can prioritize safety culture by adhering to the latest standards and regulations, such as ISO 26262 and other relevant industry specific functional safety standards. Constant oversight and incident analysis can help identify potential process improvements and prevent future incidents.
Automotive manufacturers can practice market monitoring to root out the causes of safety-related incidents and identify areas of improvement. In fact, the VDA standard "Product Integrity 2021" requires this, and procedure ADI Standard 1582 specifies it as one of the responsibilities of the Product Safety and Conformity Representative (PSCR).
Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) has a Functional Safety Office (FSO) that is independent of business units. One of the FSO’s responsibilities is to analyze incidents from both field returns (CAPA/CARA Reports) and the market, such as recalls by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and extract potential lessons learned.
ADI’s FSO screens public safety reports from the NHTSA each month and further analyzes any incidents related to electrical/electronic (E/E) systems. The FSO team convenes regularly to determine the potential cause for each E/E system-related fault according to the root cause categories below.
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Category |
Comment |
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1 |
Software Failure |
The issue is associated with a software (SW) failure or a configuration failure. It can be resolved via SW update/over the air update (OTA). |
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2 |
Failure due to Cable Harness and Housing |
The issue is related to a failure between module connections and cabling, or to faults related to improper housing (e.g., water intrusion, corrosion, and others). It can only be resolved by re-routing cables or improving the robustness of the housing. |
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3 |
Hardware Design or Specification Failure |
A systematic failure in the hardware (HW) design leads to a safety incident (e.g., incorrectly installed fuses failed to provide protection against over-current). |
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4 |
Module or PCB Component Failure |
This includes defective modules (e.g., soldering issues) or failures in printed circuit board (PCB) components. |
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5 |
Failure Related to Module Assembly/Production/Installation |
Modules have not been produced or installed correctly during production and installation. |
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6 |
Integrated Circuit Component Failure |
All incidents where the root cause can be related to a single integrated circuit (IC) component failure |
The FSO analyzed nearly 4,000 automotive recalls that occurred between January 1, 2020, and July 31, 2024. 1,268 of the evaluated cases were related to E/E systems, and the FSO was able to glean learnings about ADI product categories including battery management systems (BMS), automotive power, serializer/deserializer (SerDes) technology, and more.
The table below breaks down the prevalence of each type of incident studied. As you can observe, more than 70% of automotive recalls are due to software and hardware design/specification failures, which fall under systematic faults. The second chart provides an alternate way of visualizing the data.
By studying incidents in the automotive field, we equip ourselves to design products that are resilient against known pitfalls and can provide optimal safety performance. Systematic faults like those we studied above can be reduced by following a product life cycle approach and adhering to performance-based functional safety standards such as ISO 26262. Functional safety must be smoothly incorporated into product development so that it is not an additional activity, but rather an integrated part of the product’s life cycle.
In conjunction with Tom Meany’s longstanding functional safety series, this blog will go on to explore functional safety principles as they apply to the automotive industry. Next month’s post will detail functional safety deployment within the company as a shared responsibility. In ADI Safety Culture, everyone owns a piece of safety activity.
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