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Functional Safety
Engineering discipline that protects against unreasonable risk caused by malfunctioning behaviour.
Functional safety (ISO 26262 in automotive, IEC 61508 generically) systematically reduces the risk of harm from system malfunctions. It produces hazard analyses (HARA), safety goals, safety concepts, FMEDA-backed hardware metrics, software architecture and unit-level evidence, and the safety case that anchors final assessment.
Related terms
ISO 26262
Automotive functional-safety standard for road-vehicle electrical and electronic systems.
ASIL
Automotive Safety Integrity Level — A through D, where D is the highest rigour.
HARA
Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment — derives safety goals and ASILs from operational hazards.
FMEDA
Failure Mode, Effects, and Diagnostic Analysis — quantitative ISO 26262 hardware metric analysis.
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