Automotive Software Engineering Using the MISRA Guidelines

In 1994 a consortium of automotive companies in the UK (MISRA) published a set of guidelines intended to assist in the development of safe and reliable vehicle-based software. These guidelines were supplemented in 1998 with recommendations on the safe use of the C programming language. This paper reviews the main issues in the guidelines, including safety analysis and the use of safety integrity levels (SILs). An example of how these guidelines have been used by a UK OEM in the procurement of an electronic system from a US supplier is given.