Generic structure of safety cases for automated vehicle systems of level 3

Abstract

The development of safety-relevant electronic control systems for automated vehicle systems of level 3 is a complex and demanding design and verification task. This article shows that the successful development of safety-related electronic control systems for motor vehicles requires both a top-down as well as a bottom-up approach. Top-down design specifications in the sense of specifying safety requirements with an automotive safety Integrity Level attached to them can usually only be made when a specific application is developed by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) at the vehicle level. In order not to inhibit the dynamics of innovation in the automotive industry, bottom-up generic products and applications with well-documented assumptions are also required. This article sets out requirements for generic safety evidence and shows how these can be seamlessly linked using the concept of “safety-related application conditions”. The basis for this is a clearly defined application context and a binding system definition. For this, it is shown what contribution the use of a semi-formal notation for the generic structuring of functional safety requirements of driving computers for level 3 automated vehicle systems can make.