A tale of two standards
ISO 26262 is the de facto safety standard for systematically eliminating unreasonable safety risks in automotive systems. It establishes a structured and uniform approach to managing safety risks throughout the development process, from the concept phase to decommissioning. The standard defines the required processes and guidelines over 12 parts and covers various aspects of the safety life cycle, such as management, development, production, and operation. The parts are organized into a hierarchical structure, with each part building upon the previous one to create a comprehensive safety framework.
Like its sibling standard from functional safety, the ISO/SAE 21434 standard was set up to guide automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers into adapting their existing engineering processes to ensure their products are free from unreasonable cybersecurity risk through a systematic approach. Comparing the two standards reveals a high degree...