Eye-catcher
Of course, impact is best measured through implementation. So how have the project results fared?
The project partners had already been involved in the standardisation activities of the EAST-ADL
and AUTOSAR projects, and then in producing the ISO 26262 - SAFE was another, essential part of
the jigsaw. The
establishment of ISO 26262, and compliance with it, was crucial to get functional safety to a
higher
level. However, apart from the standardisation activities, it was the Eclipse-based tool
platform
activities that created visibility and generated interest in the market. "And since the tools in
the
SAFE project were developed by both commercial tool vendors and research institutes, these were
already
integrated in existing bigger toolsets from the beginning on," Voget adds, "fast
exploitation
was
facilitated by delivering new versions of the commercial tools as well as by publishing new
features in
the research tools."
Exploitation
On the back of its involvement in the SAFE project, Dassault Systèmes, with aerospace
industry
roots and
experience with the energy and railway domains, has developed a Smart, Safe & Connected Car
solution
that offers customers the 3DExperience platform© (including PLM) to give automotive
developers a
very
specific way to manage the kind of embedded systems that have become a growing challenge in the
automotive industry. This new solution is also designed to help customers ensure they are
compliant with
the ISO26262 and Automotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR) safety standards. It contains
four
modules: an Electronics & Electrical Architecture Definition, Behaviour Modelling and
Simulation,
Electrical Engineering and Functional Safety Delivery. This last module is designed to give
users the
ability to track the ISO 26262 safety standard throughout the product design process and took
benefit of
the SAFE project on Preliminary Risk Assessment, System Safety Concept, Fault Tree Analysis and
Failure
Modes & Effects Analysis; in this Dassault Systèmes’ solution, the proof of the
pudding really
is in the
eating. The solution is currently under negotiation with several automotive customers.
Thanks to the SAFE project, Continental established the ISO26262 compliance in two major domains,
namely
the safety critical domains of power trains and chassis break systems. These domains represent
40% of
Continental’s product share and if it they hadn’t participated in the SAFE project,
Continental
would
have had an important setback compared to others in the market.
Other examples of successful exploitation of the project’s results include Vector
Informatik,
which
implemented FMEA, a model-based qualitative safety analysis method, and added malfunction
modelling
capabilities in its PREEvision tool, a software application that supports architects, network
designers,
development engineers and test engineers through the entire development process. Thanks to the
SAFE
project the integrated modelling of safety aspects is now possible. And pure-systems managed to
seamlessly integrate pure-variants into the SAFE platform, thereby enabling the variant
management
capabilities of pure-variants for contexts with safety related assets. Through tool supported
variant
management the development process becomes more efficient, faster and more reliable up to
20%.
Ongoing story
"And now, in 2017, three years after the end of the project, we have even got together with
one of the former partners, Fortiss, to continue the story by applying the SAFE safety
methods to new emerging functionalities," Voget says. "This is the direction that is
occurring at the moment - the need for more flexibility to update and upgrade the software
in the car. This was not a scenario we had in mind at the time of the project; we are now
seeing the element of security playing a more important role. So, it's safety and security.
We are facing a new challenge, then, one that has been given an extra dimension, so to
speak. However, because the SAFE project has given us such a good basis in terms of safety -
we know how to cover the functional safety - we concentrate our efforts on the security
challenges that come with growing connectivity - the Cloud, the internet - in the automotive
domain." And so the story continues!