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Explore our wide catalogue of automotive standards, developed to help manufacturers and suppliers ensure their vehicle products meet with recognized industry requirements. Our automotive standards help to improve the resilience of vehicle systems, delivering solutions to drive technological innovation, enhance safety and improve sustainability.

Standards drive innovation and automotive performance

Discover how standards safe adoption of new technologies and improve resilience of vehicle systems

What are the benefits of standards to your automotive organization?
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What are the benefits of standards to your automotive organization?

Using automotive standards can offer a set of powerful business and marketing tools for automotive organizations of all sizes. You can use them to fine-tune your performance and manage the risks you face while operating in more efficient and sustainable ways; they’ll allow you to demonstrate the quality of what you do to your customers, and they help you to see how to embed best practice into your organization. Automotive standards are voluntary, which means that businesses and other organizations are not legally obliged to apply them. However, in certain cases standards may facilitate compliance with legal requirements, such as those contained in European directives and regulations. Automotive industry trends The automotive industry has seen a great amount of growth over the past decade. Challenges stemming from both economic and environmental factors have changed the way vehicles must perform, and automotive manufacturers have been required to take measures to adapt to them. Standards help automotive businesses to make these changes and embed best practice processes into the core of every organization. Many trends in this industry have come about that call for a change in automobile manufacturing practices, but the primary ones include: Enhanced safety requirements, such as those related to carbon dioxide emissions The rise of new technologies, such as connective systems and autonomous vehicles Having to be cost-effective despite complex supply chains The increased need for transparency and good governance from automotive companies, such as during recalls on certain vehicles The growing demand for electric vehicles and the need to stay competitive What are the benefits of automotive standards? Automotive standards are valuable tools that can help your business to: Ensure the quality and safety of products and/or services Achieve compatibility between products and/or components Access markets and sells to customers in other countries Satisfy your customers’ expectations and requirements Reduce costs, eliminate waste and improve efficiency Comply with relevant legislation including EU regulations Gain knowledge about new technologies and innovations Key automotive standards The most common standards related to the automotive industry include: BS EN ISO 14001: As the international standard for environmental management systems (EMS), this standard has been implemented by more than 250,000 organizations around the world. This best-selling standard maps out a framework that a company or organization can follow to set up an effective environmental management system (EMS). Business benefit: As the global standard for any business that wants to manage and positively control all aspects of its environmental impact. It is a proven way to demonstrate that you’re serious about your business’s environmental and economic sustainability. BS ISO 26262 Series: These standards provide guidance on how to achieve Functional Safety of a vehicle system through the implementation of a safety lifecycle that provides an approach to risk management during product development. The focus of BS ISO 26262 standards is how to address the malfunctioning behaviour of automotive systems, caused by software or hardware faults. Business benefit: Implementing this set of standards provides automotive businesses with requirements for validation and confirmation measures to ensure a sufficient and acceptable level of safety is being achieved. It also facilitates better collaboration with suppliers. BS EN ISO 45001: Along with offering reliable products and services, automotive manufacturers must constantly strive to provide their workers and visitors with a safe and healthy business environment. With the goal of providing businesses with a framework for controlling and eliminating factors that can lead to illness and injuries, implementing the BS EN ISO 45001 Health and safety standard is a prudent move for any organization’s senior management to support. Business benefit: This standard will help you to protect and enhance your most important asset, your people, to drive business excellence. It helps your business demonstrate brand responsibility by committing to a safe, healthy, and sustainable work environment. Start your journey with standards today by adding all the key automotive standards and start reaping the benefits for your automotive business. Discover BSI Knowledge Standards make trade easier by ensuring compatibility and interoperability of components, products, and services. They bring benefits to businesses and consumers in terms of reducing costs, enhancing performance, and improving safety. Our tailored BSI Knowledge subscription service provides flexibility, access, visibility, and control over the standards and insights your organization needs to achieve this objective. Request to learn more.Read more
Driving safety forward: Supporting the safety of the intended functionality of vehicles with BS ISO 21448
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Driving safety forward: Supporting the safety of the intended functionality of vehicles with BS ISO 21448

The rapid advancement of automated driving technology is putting pressure on the industry to rethink automotive safety standards. This is because, despite there being increasing levels of consumer confidence in connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technology, this trust only tends to be present when manufacturers can demonstrate that additional safety measures have been implemented. As a result, a lack of accepted safety practices has been identified as a significant impediment to progress in the widespread adoption of this technology. To help increase standardization within the industry, automotive manufacturers and regulators have called for the development of more comprehensive standards to guarantee safety requirement completeness for connected and automated vehicles – see the BSI CAV Program. In response to this request, a significant automotive safety standard has been developed, BS ISO 21448 Road vehicles — Safety of the intended functionality, which will go some way to addressing the concerns from vehicle owners about the safety of their vehicle both in static and dynamic modes of operation. Why does the industry need automotive safety standard BS ISO 21448? So far, the BS EN ISO 26262 series on vehicle functional safety have been the primary standards in automotive development. The requirements in BS EN ISO 26262 define how to address safety risks due to malfunctioning behavior of a vehicle’s electrics/electronics (E/E) system, with the underlying assumption that the nominal performance of the E/E system is acceptably safe. With the introduction of new connected and automated vehicle technologies, it was recognized that the intended functionality and its implementation - as systems that rely on sensing the external or internal vehicle environment to build situational awareness - can cause hazardous behavior. This is despite these systems being free from the faults addressed in the BS EN ISO 26262 series. As a result, there was an obvious gap in best practices that needed to be filled. BS ISO 21448 represents a new set of industry best practices, developed from ISO/PAS 21448, and is devised to cover safety hazards that do not result from any system failures. In essence, BS ISO 21448 applies to systems operating in an open context, requiring engineers and designers to adopt a safety assurance approach that reduces the uncertainty associated with these types of systems.  It is the use of this new standard in combination with the BS EN ISO 26262 series that helps automated vehicle manufacturers, as well as other organizations who are developing the technology for automated driving, to achieve the absence of unreasonable risk. To learn more about the automotive safety standards that are available, read our article: ‘Safety first: How safety standards minimize risk in the automotive sector’ What is the safety of the intended functionality (SOTIF)? There has been a growing need to demonstrate the safety of an automated vehicle within a real-world setting, with given scenarios to which the vehicle needs to be able to adapt. As a result, it is now becoming a key aspect of vehicle compliance for manufacturers to be able to ensure the safety of the intended functionality (SOTIF) of their automated vehicles. This involves testing the vehicle to show that there is an absence of unreasonable risk due to hazards resulting from functional insufficiencies, or from reasonably foreseeable misuse by persons. BS ISO 21448 provides guidance on the applicable design, verification, and validation measures needed to achieve the safety of the intended functionality (SOTIF). Rather than focusing on failures, this new standard covers hazardous behavior in the absence of faults: any unintended consequences that result from the technological shortcomings of the system by design. Some examples of the guidance areas that BS ISO 21448 covers include: Design phase example: requirement for analysis of performance insufficiency to ensure  appropriate sensor performance for the intended operating environment Verification phase example: requirement for identification of appropriate test cases, verifying the acceptance of identified functional insufficiencies with their respective triggering conditions Validation phase example: requirement for appropriate coverage of the intended operating environment to discover unknown triggering conditions for remaining functional insufficiencies To read more about how standards are supporting the development of CAV technology, visit our Connected Automated Vehicles Topic Page. Benefits of BS EN ISO 21448 for automotive manufacturers There are many benefits for manufacturers in adopting BS ISO 21448. These include: Improve the safety of your automotive products Build trust with your customers Ensure compliance with regulations - BS ISO 21448 is potentially being cited in UNECE WP29 vehicle type approval regulations. This would make it a requirement for the industry to comply with the standard as it is part of vehicle type approval of which the regulator in the UK is the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA).  Reduce the risk of recalls over performance concerns Get access to BS ISO 21448 and over 100,000 other standard documents with a BSI Knowledge subscription. You will have the flexibility and visibility to manage the essential standards you need in order to work with confidence and optimize the safety of your automotive products. Build your own custom collection of standards, or opt for access to our GBM27 Road Vehicle Engineering module and keep up-to-date with any relevant changes to your standards strategy. Request to learn more. Ensure you are working to the latest safety of the intended functionality best practices when it comes to the development of your connected and automated vehicles. Add BS EN ISO 21448 to your collection today.
The importance of standards in the automotive supply chain
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The importance of standards in the automotive supply chain

The automotive sector is undergoing rapid transformation driven by social and environmental megatrends and the rapid evolution of new automotive manufacturing and consumer-facing automotive technologies. The changes to the automotive supply chain are significant and bring a host of new opportunities as well as a range of new challenges. Parallel to this, the sector is constantly battling with multiple risks, such as natural disasters, theft, counterfeit production, and quality and safety issues. These sectors are under tight scrutiny to guarantee their components are properly manufactured to ensure the safety of their consumers. Responsible sourcing strategies play a large role in reducing potential quality risks and protecting an organization's brand and reputation. As a result, it’s imperative that automotive organizations have complete visibility into their suppliers’ practices to make sure they remain compliant with government and company regulations. Throughout the automotive supply chain, standards help automotive companies to improve and become more resilient.  What are the benefits of standards to the automotive supply chain? Automobiles are among the most complex products on the market and have a correspondingly complex supply chain. Each of the thousands of parts that comprise an automobile represents a regulatory risk for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers. Implementing the relevant automotive supply chain standards in your organization has the potential to facilitate knowledge diffusion along your automotive supply chain as well as assuring supplier’s quality and have an impact on the bargaining power equilibrium between the buyer and its supplier. Especially in the automotive industry, these aspects play an important role. Other main benefits of automotive supply chain standards include; Faster turnaround of goods Higher revenue generation Reduced resource waste Lower expenses Greater return on investment (for all partners) Improved productivity of the entire chain Fewer drops in errors, losses, and delays Increase in procurement and buying power Centralized communication Increased innovation To read more on the topic of innovation in the automotive industry, click here. Key automotive supply chain standards  Supply chain management can make or break you, which is why leveraging the right standards, in the right way, with the right parties is critical to success. Implementing globally recognized standards will help mitigate the risks of failure in the supply chain, boost customer satisfaction and make your organization resilient. The world’s most widely adopted quality management standard is BS EN ISO 9001, used by organizations from all sectors and of all sizes to boost customer satisfaction. It sets out what’s needed to implement a quality management system – the purpose of which is to improve overall performance in your supply chain. Another key standard is BS EN ISO 22301. This is the international standard that specifies the requirements for a business continuity management system. It helps you to identify potential threats to your automotive supply chain. This includes extreme weather, fire, flood, natural disaster, theft, IT outage, staff illness, or terrorist attack. The BS EN ISO 22301 management system lets you identify threats relevant to your business and the critical business functions they could impact. And it allows you to put plans in place ahead of time to ensure your business doesn’t come to a standstill. Linked to this, the new standard BS ISO 22739:2020 provides fundamental terminology for blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.  Other important supply chain standards include:  BS ISO 26262 Series: These standards provide guidance on how to achieve Functional Safety of a vehicle system through the implementation of a safety lifecycle that provides an approach to risk management during product development. The focus of BS ISO 26262 standards is how to address the malfunctioning behaviour of automotive systems, caused by software or hardware faults. BS ISO/SAE 21434: This standard provides an excellent framework that helps automotive organizations manage and protect their information assets so that they remain safe and secure. It helps you to continually review and refine the way you do this, not only for today but also for the future. Make your automotive supply chain as resilient as possible by adding all the key automotive standards to your collection today. Discover BSI Knowledge There is no doubt that using standards can ensure the resilience of your automotive supply chain, building crucial trust between you and your stakeholders and consumers. With a BSI Knowledge subscription, supply chain resilience is at your fingertips with instant access to over 2,000 best practice documents related to the automotive industry. Request to learn more.
Safety first: How safety standards minimize risk in the automotive sector
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Safety first: How safety standards minimize risk in the automotive sector

Safety is a key consideration when making a new car purchase, but this choice is usually focused on advertised safety features, such as ratings that indicate how well a vehicle will perform in a crash. BS ISO 13216-1 describes a universal system for anchoring child restraint systems to vehicles. The purpose of this system is to improve the overall safety performance of child restraints, particularly by improving the convenience of installation and reducing the risk of misuse. From originally measuring impact strength, these ratings have expanded to not just include active safety features like the number of airbags and Brake pre-charging systems, but also systems assisting the driver in avoiding an accident, like LaneKeeping Assist systems or Emergency Braking Assists. Unlike other transport systems, which have regulatory oversight that sets targets and criteria for safety and assess and monitor the performance of manufacturers and operators, this is not the case for road vehicles. Currently, passenger cars are sold to the public by vehicle manufacturers through dealer networks, and it is up to the vehicle manufacturer to achieve an acceptable level of safety for their products. Vehicle manufacturers have, of course, been required to achieve type approval prior to being able to sell a particular vehicle for some time. This process ensures that motor vehicles meet relevant environmental, safety and security standards. Type Approval is granted when vehicle components and systems meet the requirements of the type approval regulations. These regulations define certain performance characteristics, (e.g. lighting functionality or braking performance) that are considered necessary for a safe vehicle. Type Approval is obtained by the manufacturer at the end of vehicle development and once achieved, the vehicle can be produced and sold to the public with the type approval process ensuring that the manufacturing process can maintain the validated criteria. Standards for Functional Safety  Product safety for a vehicle goes further than requirements for specific performance criteria or properties of individual components or systems. This was sufficient for mechanical components or simpler electromechanical systems, but the trend to more differentiating content, stricter emissions regulation, and the general advancement of mobile technology - which has also found a way into the vehicle - has increased the software content within vehicles rapidly. Based on the need for additional measures to supplement the traditional techniques that ensured safety through reliability and robustness, the discipline of Functional Safety - which is concerned with that part of the overall safety of a system that depends on it operating correctly in response to its inputs - has been adapted to the application of automotive programmable electric, and electronic (EE) systems, and addresses hazards that could be caused by their malfunctions. The BS ISO 26262 series of standards, have, since their initial release in 2011, are considered the best practice for automotive Functional Safety. It provides guidance for establishing a Functional Safety management system, with processes to supplement all development lifecycles of an automotive EE system with Functional Safety activities. From the beginning it has been set up around the organization of the automotive supply chain and, following additional work and expansion, now facilitates the achievement of Functional Safety for most vehicle types and at all levels of design detail, hence covering activities at vehicle OEMs (original equipment manufacturer), system and component suppliers and even semiconductor manufacturers. In 2018 the guidance, previously aimed at passenger cars, was extended to cover trucks and buses, and guidance for motorcycles and semiconductors - which had previously been published as PAS (publicly available specification) in the phase between the 1st and 2nd edition of BS ISO 26262 - was incorporated into the 2nd edition of BS ISO 26262 series of standard. As a result, BS ISO 26262:2018 gives guidance on the achievement of Functional Safety for automotive EE systems for most production vehicle types at vehicle, system, software, and hardware level, including guidance for semiconductor level. How Does BS ISO 26262 Achieve Functional Safety? BS ISO 26262 provides guidance on how to achieve Functional Safety of a vehicle system (referred to as an “item” in BS ISO 26262 terminology) through the implementation of a safety lifecycle that provides an approach to risk management during product development. It provides a particular risk model that has been adapted around a driver control model. Although not setting any quantitative targets for safety, there is an implied “accepted” level of risk that the application of BS ISO 26262 gives. However, it should be noted that this risk is concerned with malfunctioning behavior only and does not cover risk due to the general use of the product - the vehicle - within the road transport environment. Instead, the focus of BS ISO 26262 is how to address the malfunctioning behavior of automotive systems, caused by software or hardware faults. New Trends Affecting Safety  Vehicle technology continues to advance, and with the trend towards safer, cleaner mobility there is an increased focus on systems that facilitate some level of automated driving capability. This is seen as an enabler for more efficient mobility, through a reduction in accident rates, reduced congestion, and improved traffic flow. The aim is to identify key standards of relevance in the design, production, operation, and testing of CAVs in the UK, Europe, and internationally. The connected vehicle had been with us for several years. This is not just evident in the obvious such as GPS and in-car entertainment. But the slightly less obvious to most drivers is in the form of remote vehicle diagnostics, eCall, and engine control systems. A number of countries have developed showing the continual move to the connected and onwards to the completely autonomous vehicles. Companies looking to commercialize emerging technologies with the CAV area are part of a developing business ‘ecosystem’, and the stronger they can exploit the networks within the ecosystem. However, these complex ecosystems can give rise to obstacles that get in the way of successful innovation. Automated driving systems constitute a challenge to safety engineers. BS ISO 26262 focuses on reducing risk due to malfunctioning behavior of EE systems. This assumes that the fault-free performance of the EE system is free from risk, and that risk only arises as a result of faults in the hardware and/ or software. Guidance is given for addressing random hardware faults (like short circuits in motor driver circuits or an open resistor in a filter circuit) and systematic hardware and software faults, through achieving the requirements the standard sets out. But when advanced automated driving systems were first introduced a new phenomenon was discovered. It was noted that these EE systems could result in hazardous behavior in the absence of malfunctions. As a result, much of the recent guidance published to date relates in some way to developing safe systems for automated driving systems: • PAS 1880 provides a set of initial guidelines focused on developing safe control systems for automated vehicles (AVs). • PAS 1881 is designed to assure the safety of related trialing and developmental testing activities alongside CCAV’s own Code of Practice. This specification determines minimum safety case requirements for AV trials and development testing in the UK to demonstrate such activities can be undertaken safely. • PAS 1883 provides a universal taxonomy for specifying the operational design domain (ODD), or intended operating conditions, of an automated driving system (ADS). As vehicles become more connected and automated, keeping up to date and meeting the relevant safety standards will be vital for your customers, your supply chain, and your competitive edge. With a BSI Knowledge subscription, automotive safety is at your fingertips with instant access to over 2,000 best practice documents related to the automotive industry - all in one place. Request to learn more. Add all the key automotive safety standards to your collection today.

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