Semcon in new project for safer autonomous vehicles

Semcon is part of a new functional safety partnership with a global vehicle manufacturer. This project aims to use quality-assured system solutions to ensure that the autonomous vehicles of the future are reliable.

Besides functional safety software solutions, this contract also includes strategic consulting to ensure that safety becomes a natural element in all software development, working methods and management decisions relating to the autonomous vehicles of the future. This is a two-year project which is being supplied to the client by Semcon and Qamcom, who are working in close partnership.

“This is an important contract for us, and it also demonstrates our journey towards a more digital focus. Functional safety has become even more key now that vehicles are becoming autonomous, and strategic decisions also have to take this into account,” says Markus Granlund, chief executive officer at Semcon.

Autonomous vehicle solutions are already undergoing tests in restricted environments where functional safety is of major importance, but in the future the issue will become even more relevant when autonomous vehicles are using our public roads. Ultimately, it is necessary to make sure that autonomous products are sufficiently safe and that people can rely on the technology.

“There have to be mechanisms in the software that are activated if something goes wrong so that the vehicle does not present a hazard. This has to be designed into the product from the outset, it cannot be added later. In fact, this is a cultural issue that needs to permeate all levels in a development organisation,” says Magnus Carlsson, division manager, Digital Services at Semcon.