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The megatrends "reduction of emissions" and "fuel consumption reduction" play a predominant role in the development of powertrains. For transit buses this implies both the reduction of emissions and pollutions of the internal combustion engine, and, on the other hand, a further reduction of noise and brake dust. Also very important is the reduction of both fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. For all these targets the actual developments on the engine side have led to great improvements in the last decades, but what can be mentioned for the other components of the powertrain, especially looking for transmissions? First of all the relevant trends for transit buses have to be considered: A large increase of the torque of the combustion engines during the last years has a big impact on the development of transmissions for buses.

The purpose of the 4-SPACE (4-Stroke Powered gasoline Auto-ignition Controlled combustion Engine) industrial research project is to research and develop an innovative controlled auto-ignition combustion process for lean burn automotive gasoline 4-stroke engines application. The engine concepts to be developed could have the potential to replace the existing stoichiometric / 3-way catalyst automotive spark ignition 4-stroke engines by offering the potential to meet the most stringent EURO 4 emissions limits in the year 2005 without requiring DeNOx catalyst technology. A reduction of fuel consumption and therefore of corresponding CO2 emissions of 15 to 20% in average urban conditions of use, is expected for the « 4-SPACE » lean burn 4-stroke engine with additional reduction of CO emissions.

As the engineering community continues working on automated driving (AD) functionalities, the topic of safety validation still provides fuel for discussions. Despite the vehicles equipped with higher level AD functionalities ready to enter service on public roads, there is still no state-of-the-art process created for safety validation procedures. In this situation, vehicles with similar functionalities may end up coming through fundamentally different validation procedure, and the public may be exposed to additional risks. This paper fist formulates requirements which safety validation process needs to fulfill. The requirements are based on ISO 26262, PAS 21448 (SOTIF), and the state of the art requirements typical for safety applications. Then, the process of implementation of those requirements is sketched.