Safety of the Intended Functionality: The Linchpin of Advancing Vehicle Autonomy

Session details:

Many are familiar with the concepts of Functional Safety per ISO 26262, but safety goals and considerations don’t stop at the system failure level. What happens when equipment is functioning as intended, but in an unsafe manner? This is where Safety of the Intended Functionality (SOTIF) per ISO 21448 comes in. The goal of SOTIF is to identify scenarios where intended functionality may be unsafe and the triggers that cause this (i.e., a fully functional camera blinded by glare).

SOTIF design enhances passenger safety, improves system reliability, and greatly expands vehicle operating environments, all of which are necessary for OEMs to achieve higher levels of autonomy (L3+).

This lightning talk will introduce participants to relevant safety standards, explain how to implement a sufficiently diverse sensor mix, consensus-based decision making to achieve SOTIF, and model rigorous analysis of the design assumptions at play in their systems, enabling designers to achieve next-gen autonomy.