System Safety vs. Functional Safety in Automotive Applications

System safety is used for the combination of functional safety and product safety, including safety of the intended function (SOTIF), and is a broader term. The IEC 61508 and ISO 26262 standards differ in their approach to functional safety. Safety when the automotive product is in use without a failure is an especially important consideration for an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) and automated driving. The Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs and Society of Automotive Engineers standard J3016 define ADAS and different levels of automation. Triggering events are important because they serve as initiators for any reaction by an automotive system. The term functional safety is normally used with respect to potential hazards caused by faults in the system, while SOTIF is used with respect to potential hazards caused by the system without a fault. The ISO 26262 standard and the publicly available specification ISO PAS 21448 were written to address these differences.