Homologation and Certification – The Main Challenges

New ideas and smart development and test processes are pivotal for the mobility of the future. But if the safety of the new mobility applications cannot be proven, they simply cannot be marketed. This is why we at dSPACE guide you across the finish line.

As applications of the future, such as those for autonomous driving, are becoming increasingly complex, so is their approval. But drivers and authorities must be able to trust that the applications and technologies are absolutely safe, and proof of their safety must be reliable.

How do you prove “acceptable safety”? A number of regulations and standards already apply (ISO 26262, SOTIF, etc.), others are being developed, such as UN Regulations No. 157 (ALKS), a regulation on the first Level 3 systems. Generally, an application’s complexity determines the number of test cases and scenarios. However, for very complex applications, the time and computing power of the test systems would skyrocket to unachievable heights. The most important asset in mastering this complexity is an intelligent test strategy that also defines suitable points in time for testing, methods, and the number of tests required. The good news: There are innovative methods and tool support to obtain the required proof of safety for complex applications in the appropriate time. These methods include the smart reduction of test cases, for example, by leveraging similarities between scenarios; using relative proof of risks instead of calculating each individual risk in its entirety; and using quantified proof of test coverage.