[ISO 26262, Term Explanation] Operating Mode v.s. Operational Situation v.s. Operating State

Brief

This article distinguishes the terms Operating Mode, Operational Situation, and Vehicle Operating State under the context of ISO 26262.

Definitions

Operating Mode: Conditions of functional state that arise from the use and application of an item or element.

Operational Situation: Scenario that can occur during a vehicle’s life

Vehicle Operating state: Operating mode in combination with the operational situation

Safe State: operating mode, in case of a failure, of an item without an unreasonable level of risk.

Explanation

Examples of Operating Modes:

• System off
• System active
• System passive (the system is on and waiting to be activated?)
• Degraded operation
• Emergency operation
• Safe state
• Default (mentioned in 4-6.4.7.2 for hardware devices)
• Initialization (mentioned in 4-6.4.7.2 for hardware devices)
• (Self)Test (mentioned in 4-6.4.7.2 for hardware devices)

Examples of Operational Situations:

• Driving on a highway
• Parking on a parking lot
• Waiting for signal

Safe State is an important Operating Mode on item level.

• While normal operation can be considered safe, the definition of safe state is only in the case of failure in the context of the ISO 26262 series of standards.
• Example of a safe state: Switched-off mode (for systems that are not fault tolerant)
• In case of a failure, the item goes to a safe state via a safety mechanism