Automotive standard
ISO 26262: Automotive Functional Safety
ISO 26262 is the functional-safety standard for electrical/electronic systems in road vehicles, managing failure risk via ASIL levels A-D.
What is ISO 26262?
ISO 26262 adapts the broader IEC 61508 safety framework to automotive. It defines a safety lifecycle from concept through decommissioning, requires hazard analysis and risk assessment to set an ASIL, and then drives the hardware and software requirements, safety mechanisms, and verification needed to achieve that level. The current edition is ISO 26262:2018 (12 parts), which covers all series-production road vehicles except mopeds — including trucks, buses and motorcycles (Part 12); a third edition is in preparation.
Who needs ISO 26262?
OEMs and suppliers developing automotive ECUs and E/E systems — powertrain, chassis, ADAS, battery management, and increasingly software-defined vehicle platforms.
Key requirements
HARA
Hazard analysis and risk assessment to identify hazards and assign an ASIL.
Functional safety concept
Safety goals and a concept that mitigates each hazard to an acceptable level.
Technical safety requirements
Decomposition into hardware and software requirements with safety mechanisms.
Hardware metrics
Single-point and latent-fault metrics, plus diagnostic coverage targets per ASIL.
Software development
Safety-oriented design, coding standards, and verification appropriate to the ASIL.
Safety case
An argued, evidenced demonstration that the item is acceptably safe.
ASIL levels
Quality-managed — no specific ISO 26262 safety requirements beyond normal quality.
Lowest safety integrity requirement.
Increasing rigor in metrics, verification, and independence.
Highest integrity — the most demanding hardware metrics and verification.
How Rapid Circuitry helps
Rapid Circuitry designs automotive electronics with functional-safety practice — safety-aware architecture, diagnostic coverage, and verification — to support your ISO 26262 work, with deeper detail on our automotive solutions page.
Frequently asked questions
What does ASIL mean?
ASIL (Automotive Safety Integrity Level) classifies the risk of a hazard from severity, exposure, and controllability, then sets how rigorous the development must be. It ranges from ASIL A (lowest) to ASIL D (highest), with QM for items needing no specific safety measures.
How is ISO 26262 related to IEC 61508?
ISO 26262 is the automotive adaptation of IEC 61508, the general functional-safety standard. It tailors concepts like safety integrity levels and the safety lifecycle to passenger-vehicle and, in later editions, broader road-vehicle contexts.
Does ISO 26262 cover software?
Yes. It addresses both hardware and software, including software architecture, coding guidelines (often paired with MISRA), and verification appropriate to the assigned ASIL.