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Achieving functional safety in mechatronic systems with growing product functionality is a major challenge in systems engineering. Following the current discussion, this challenge is mostly allocated to electronics and software development. For most of the scenarios this focus is feasible. Product design - the construction of the product - defines the properties and the appearance of the product by shape, material and assembly. So, the product design is often not under control of the safety management system. A hazardous deviation of part shape can be easily identified after the parts product or at least at its mounting. A wrong assembly is controlled by assembly documentation or data (e.g. screw torques) and identified at end of assembly line checks. The identification of a hazardous material choice depends on the product material class. Product materials can be separated into two classes: passive or active materials.

Today, highly automated driving is paving the road for full autonomy. Highly automated vehicles can monitor the environment and make decisions more accurately and faster than humans to create safer driving conditions while ultimately achieving full automation to relieve the driver completely from participating in driving. As much as this transition from advanced driving assistance systems to fully automated driving will create frontiers for re-designing the in-vehicle experience for customers, it will continue to pose significant challenges for the industry as it did in the past and does so today. As we transfer more responsibility, functionality and control from human to machine, technologies become more complex, less transparent and making constant safe-guarding a challenge. With automation, potential misuse and insufficient system safety design are important factors that can cause fatal accidents, such as in TESLA autopilot incident.