Automotive Functional Safety and Safety Of The Intended Functionality (SOTIF) Research Report, 2024
As intelligent connected vehicles boom, the change in automotive EEA has been accelerated, and the risks caused by electronic and electrical failures have become ever higher. As a result, functional safety and SOTIF (safety of the intended functionality) have caught more attention, especially in the field of autonomous vehicles.
In 2023, standards and policies have speeded up the development of automotive functional safety and SOTIF in China. In addition to the latest functional safety standard GB_T 34590 2022 officially taking into effect on July 1, 2023, related Chinese departments also issued multiple policies concerning functional safety and SOTIF.
For example, in July 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT) issued the "Guidelines for the Construction of National Internet of Vehicles Industry Standard System (Intelligent Connected Vehicles) (2023)", which clearly plans and guides the construction of standards for functional safety and SOTIF. In August 2023, the MIIT and other three departments jointly issued the Notice on the New Industry Standardization Pilot Project Implementation Plan (2023-2035), of which the Intelligent Connection Technologies in the New Energy Vehicle Industry stipulates the terms and definition of intelligent connected vehicles, functional safety and SOTIF processes, audits and evaluations, automotive cyber security, data security, software upgrades and other product and technology application standards.
On November 17, 2023, the MIIT, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Transport jointly issued the Notice on the Pilot Program for Access and On-road Passage of Intelligent Connected Vehicles, which officially suggests access specifications for L3/L4 autonomous driving and clarifies the responsibilities in high-level intelligent driving accidents for the first time, and simultaneously started the selection of the first batch of enterprises.
The Notice specifies the requirements for the access of automotive enterprises and vehicles, especially for their safety guarantee capabilities. Enterprises are required to have the ability to guarantee functional safety, SOTIF, cybersecurity, data security, software upgrade management, and risk and emergency management.
The requirements for process guarantee of intelligent connected vehicle products include the functional safety process guarantee of vehicles (especially autonomous driving systems), the SOTIF process guarantee of autonomous driving systems, and the process guarantee of vehicle cybersecurity and data security.

Therefore functional safety and SOTIF have become the access requirements for L3 autonomous vehicles in China, and the introduction of functional safety and SOTIF standard processes into L3 and higher-level autonomous systems has become the layout focus of OEMs and suppliers.
OEMs and suppliers greatly increase automotive functional safety processes and product certifications, and embark on the layout of SOTIF process certification.
Although ISO 26262 is not a global mandatory standard, it has been widely accepted in the automotive industry and has become the threshold for automotive supply chain players. OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers will have to reject products or vendors that are not ISO 26262-certified. As intelligent vehicles develop, both autonomous driving companies and OEMs attach ever more importance to functional safety and SOTIF.
In recent years, both international mainstream OEMs and Chinese automakers have paid more attention to and invested more heavily in functional safety and SOTIF. In particular, Chinese independent automakers such as Great Wall Motor, SAIC, Geely, GAC, Changan and BYD have all raised the requirements for functional safety development of important systems. Besides setting up functional safety teams, they actively participate in functional safety training, cooperate with third-party institutions, strictly control self-developed products and vehicle functional safety products and processes, and take suppliers' functional safety development capabilities and product functional safety capabilities as the criteria to enter their supply chains.
OEMs or suppliers put ever more emphasis on functional safety certification. According to public statistics, from January to November 2023, Chinese companies passed 114 functional safety certifications, including 41 product certifications and 73 process certifications, far more than in 2022 (about 40).
In addition to functional safety certification, the official implementation of SOTIF standards has spurred many OEMs and suppliers such as Great Wall Motor, FAW Hongqi, Changan Automobile, GAC, Horizon Robotics, Jingwei Hirain, Huawei, Desay SV and SenseAuto to deploy SOTIF processes. They have passed SOTIF process certifications in advance, laying a safety foundation for the further layout of autonomous driving systems.

Functional safety, SOTIF, cybersecurity, etc. tends to be developed in from an independent way to an integrated way.
In addition to functional safety, the development of vehicles will have to face other safety challenges in the future, such as SOTIF and cybersecurity. Functional safety and SOTIF focus on system design and verification to ensure that the system can work safely in all situations. Cybersecurity centers on external threats and attacks. In practical application, functional safety, SOTIF and cybersecurity often cross over. In the future, intelligent connected vehicles should solve all the risks related to vehicle safety before they can be delivered in large quantities. The integrated development of the three safety systems has become a major development trend of vehicle safety in the future. Multiple companies like KOSTAL, Neta, Baolong Technology and Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center are exploring integrated development of safety.
As vehicles carry more complex embedded electronic systems, the risks incurred by software system damage and random hardware damage are increasing. Integrating the ISO 26262 functional safety standard into the Automotive Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination (ASPICE) to guide automotive software development will greatly improve automotive system software development quality, development efficiency and product safety.

Automotive Digital Key Industry Trend Report, 2026
Digital Key Research: Automotive BLE, UWB and SLE Hardware Layout
The Automotive Digital Key Industry Trend Report, 2026, released by ResearchInChina, analyzes and predicts the digital key market, co...
Monthly Report on Automotive New Technology (May 2026)
UHD gaze technology, full-color LiDAR, UWB, etc. promote the upgrade of intelligent driving perception capabilities
This report is published once a month and is available for annual subscription.The...
In-Cabin Monitoring Systems (DMS, OMS, etc.) Research Report, 2026
In-Cabin Monitoring System Research: DMS to Become Mandatory in 2027, Expected to be Installed in Over 14 Million Vehicles
ResearchInChina released the In-Cabin Monitoring Systems (DMS, OMS, etc.) Re...
Automotive Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Cross-Domain Middleware Industry Report, 2026
Research on automotive SOA and cross-domain middleware: The era of AI atomic services and AI cross-domain fusion agents is coming.
Automotive SOA evolves towards AI + full SOA servitization Driv...
Automotive Display, Center Console and Cluster Industry Report, 2026
Automotive Display Research: Multi-Screen Application Slows Down, While OLED and MiniLED Are Introduced in Vehicles Quickly
In 2026, automotive displays will no longer excessively pursue the number a...
Global and China Intelligent Vehicle Standard System Construction and Certification Research Report, 2026
Intelligent Driving Standards and Certification: With the Maturing Standardization System, China Will Participate in Formulation of Global Standards
China's automotive industry is transforming from ...
Automotive Intelligent Diagnosis Industry Report, 2026
Automotive Intelligent Diagnosis Research: Powered by AI, Remote Diagnosis Is Being Upgraded towards Intelligence.
ResearchInChina released the Automotive Intelligent Diagnosis Industry Report, 2026....
Automotive Cloud Service Platform Research Report, 2026
Research on automotive cloud service platform: with architecture upgrade and computing power improvement, cloud services enter a new stage
In 2026, the Internet of Vehicles industry generates petaby...
Integrated Battery and Innovative Battery Technology Research Report, 2026
Power Battery Research: Sales of High-Capacity Vehicles Keep Rising, and Solid-State Batteries Begin to Be Installed in Vehicles
I. Sales of High-Capacity Vehicles Sustain Growth, and Those with A C...
Chinese Independent OEMs’ ADAS and Autonomous Driving Report, 2026
Research on OEMs' Intelligent Driving: Era of Physical AI, Standard Configuration of D2D, and Initial Exploration of L3 Commercial Pilot Projects
From 2023 to 2025, the intelligent driving installati...
Intelligent Vehicle New Technology Application Analysis Report, 2025-2026
New Technology Research: Innovative Products such as Bionic Cameras, Vision-LiDAR Fusion Sensors, Auditory Sensors Further Enhance Vehicle Perception Capabilities
ForewordResearchInChina released th...
Automotive Optical Fiber Communication (Optical Fiber Ethernet, PON) and Supply Chain Research Report, 2026
Research on Automotive Optical Fiber Communication: Introduction of Optical Fiber in Vehicles Accelerates, with Priority Deployment in High-Speed Communication Link (10+Gbps) Scenarios
Automotive opt...
Automotive Intelligent Cockpit SoC Research Report, 2026
Automotive Cockpit SoC Research: Passenger Cars in the Price Range of RMB100,000–200,000 Account for Nearly 50% of Total Sales, and New-Generation Cockpit SoC Products Largely Enter Mass Production
P...
LiDAR (Automotive, Pan-Robotics, etc.) Application Research Report, 2025-2026
LiDAR research: hardware competition shifts to combined sensing capabilities from "point cloud" to "images” and from automotive to robots The "LiDAR (Automotive, Pan-Robotics, ...
Global and China Passenger Car T-Box Market Report, 2026
Based on 2025 market data and the latest business layouts of OEMs and suppliers from 2025 to 2026, this report analyzes the development status quo and future trends of China’s passenger car T-Box mark...
Global and China Range Extended Electric Vehicle (REEV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Research Report, 2026
Research on REEVs and PHEVs: Foreign OEMs are considering extended-range technology as an important strategic option and will launch a series of new vehicles
Global PHEVs & REEVs tend to be domin...
Automotive Voice Industry Report, 2026
Automotive Voice Research: Explosive Growth in Features Like "See and Speak", 35-Fold Increase in External Voice Interaction in Two Years
ResearchInChina has released the Automotive Voice Industry R...
China Passenger Car Digital Chassis Research Report, 2026
Research on Digital Chassis: Leading OEMs Have Completed Configuration of Version 2.0 1. Leading OEMs Have Completed Configuration of Digital Chassis 2.0
By the degree of wired control of each c...