Andreas Knapp is a member of the program committee for Safetronic 2023, the international conference on holistic safety for road vehicles. In this interview, he discusses the content that the participants can expect to enjoy and the things he is particularly looking forward to.
June 19, 2023
© Fraunhofer IKS
Andreas Knapp is an Electrical engineer by education and earned his diploma from Stuttgart University in Germany. He started his professional career in 1998 at Daimler-Benz with research on system safety and the application to by-wire systems.
He has since been working in several departments within Daimler and Mercedes-Benz in the area of functional safety, among them the central governance team to introduce methods and processes and latest in the development of the next generation automated driving functions.
He chairs of the German standardization committee on functional safety and is Convenor of the international ISO working group TC22/SC32/WG8 Functional Safety, which has published ISO 26262 and ISO 21448 (SOTIF). Within the ISO working group he is project lead for Part 3 of ISO 26262, covering concept phase development activities.H. T. Hengl:
Mr. Knapp, which areas of holistic safety for road vehicles are particularly in focus at Safetronic in 2023?
Andreas Knapp:
Today’s vehicle systems are highly connected and complex. And this is increasingly the case for safety as well. It’s all about recognizing and managing interactions in the vehicle. In this respect, the key phrase is “model-based systems engineering”. It’s also about reducing complexity as far as possible, for instance through the integrated assessment of the risks arising from E/E and mechanics, chemicals (battery systems), SOTIF, and so forth. And above all else, with the higher levels of automation in the area of automated driving, the need to consider safety for the back-end and infrastructure is also increasing. All of these topics will be discussed this year.
H. T. Hengl:
What have been the focal points apart from that?
Andreas Knapp:
In the past, Safetronic has placed considerable emphasis on offering a balanced mix between innovative approaches that encourage further thinking and hands-on progress reports that people can take away with them directly. It is this focus on technology that Safetronic ultimately stands for.
H. T. Hengl:
How has the number of submissions developed in recent years?
Andreas Knapp:
In addition to the conference program, Safetronic is also a great opportunity to network with experts from the Functional Safety Community. The pandemic meant that this has taken a bit of a back seat in recent years, though. Last year, I got the impression that people had made a point of deciding on an in-person conference format. I hope that this trend will also continue this year. This trend can already be seen in the submissions. Compared with 2021, the number of proposals has increased by 40%.
H. T. Hengl:
How do you rate the quality of the submissions?
Andreas Knapp:
Once again, the quality has been very good this year. We have had so many proposals that we have had to create a shortlist for what should actually be included in the program. I hope we will succeed in putting together a varied program with the topics that are of greatest interest to the participants.
Learn more about Safetronic 2023 and register now.
H. T. Hengl:
What is your personal highlight?
Andreas Knapp:
I don’t want to give too much away just yet. After all, the final decision hasn’t yet been made by the program committee. There are some proposals that provide impetus for the upcoming revision of ISO 26262, however. As the head of the ISO working group, I personally find that to be particularly exciting.
