Franck Galtié
Functional Safety Director, NXP Semiconductors
C h a p t e r 2
Safety is one of the most significant
considerations when designing vehicle
electrification solutions.
In the context of EVs, safety may be
defined in many ways; with a focus
on hardware, safety is best viewed as
designing systems that exhibit the
smallest probability of failure. Hardware
designers should strive to design
vehicle electrification solutions that
are robust and reliable regardless of
operating conditions, device age, or other
environmental factors. Hence, safety is
best defined as reducing the probability
of a failure beneath some acceptable
level.
The problem with this definition, of
course, is that the acceptable level of
safety cannot be subjective; rather, it
must be defined stringently to include
passengers across the market. Thus,
designers must aim to adhere to a
number of different safety standards,
such as the International Organization
for Standardization's (ISO's) popular
standard ISO 26262. By adhering to these
standards, designers can meet different
Automotive Safety Integrity Levels
(ASILs), ranging from ASIL A on the low
end to ASIL D on the high end.
Achieving safety in EV design may
be particularly difficult owing to the
combination of high voltages, high
DESIGNING FOR SAFETY
For maximum safety, we need to
analyze all types of failures from all
levels, including looking individually
at the system, hardware, and
software. The goal is to identify all
of the potential failure modes and
find a way to avoid fatal failures
or mitigate the effect of those
failures."
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7 Experts on Designing Vehicle Electrification Solutions
