For Safetronic 2025, we were able to gain two new members of the programme committee. One of them is Edith Holland, Chief Engineer Functional Safety at the vehicle engineering, test and development consultancy HORIBA MIRA. She spoke to Safe Intelligence online magazine about her motivation and the importance of safety for road vehicles now and in future.
June 12, 2025
© Fraunhofer IKS
H. T. Hengl:
Edith, you gladly accepted the invitation to join the programme committee this year. What motivates you?
Edith Holland:
I had been aware of Safetronic for a number of years and always found their programme was packed full of interesting content. Having worked in the UK automotive industry I had not had the opportunity to attend one of their events, so the initiative to make the event more global has been a great opportunity to bring a different perspective to the programme committee and hopefully also attend regularly!
H. T. Hengl:
What does ‘holistic safety for road vehicles’ mean to you?
Edith Holland:
“Divide and conquer” has long been the approach for engineering in general and therefore also for developing vehicles. The same has also been the case for achieving safety where different processes and techniques apply to different disciplines. Holistic safety to me not only means to ensure that more than simply the sum of all the requirements of all safety-related disciplines is followed (FS, SOTIF, Electrical safety, Mechanical safety etc.) but that instead there is a complete overall commitment to safety that is embedded in the development of the road vehicle from the start and across all involved organizations.
After her Abitur in Germany, Edith Holland studied Electrical & Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol before starting her career as a Graduate Engineer with Jaguar Cars in 1998. Her first role was within the engine management systems team working on and testing electronic throttle diagnostics. This sparked her interest in safety way before ISO 26262 existed and lead to her gaining more experience in the now developing field of Functional Safety as a Functional Safety engineer and later Functional Safety manager for projects across the Chassis, Body and Electrical departments in addition to taking on additional responsibility for coaching and mentoring other engineers working on safety-relevant projects.
She later moved to the central Functional Safety team within Jaguar Land Rover and worked on FS process development and improvement as well as an internal FS auditor and assessor. During this time, she was elected to join the ISO 26262 WG as a UK expert.
In 2019 she joined the System & Safety team at the vehicle engineering consultancy HORIBA MIRA as Chief Engineer Functional Safety and now manages Functional Safety and SOTIF projects for a range of customers as well as developing and delivering training courses on both topics and getting involved in technical business development.
H. T. Hengl:
Could you please describe the challenges of safety for you personally?
Edith Holland:
I see a number of challenges out there. Complexity is not going to reduce, and the pace of developments is not slowing down either. And of course, in order to be able to give safety the attention it deserves, it needs to be understood, valued and prioritized by everyone throughout any organization.
H. T. Hengl:
And how important from your point of view is safety for automated driving?
Edith Holland:
Safety is a key aspect for public acceptance of automated driving. I am looking forward to discussing this important topic and its various aspects at Safetronic. And all the more so as I am intending to lead further projects and contributing to standards and regulations which make safe automated driving a reality in future.
Safetronic – the international conference on holistic safety for road vehicles in Stuttgart – offers testimonies and presentations on innovative solutions from leading OEMs and suppliers, as well as intensive opportunities for discussion. Learn about current industry trends and developments!
We are delighted to present the first version of our program, which once again offers participants several OEM case studies this year: BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and VW Commercial Vehicles.
H. T. Hengl:
Which safety topics are important to you and would you like to see included in Safetronic's future programmes?
Edith Holland:
Safety needs to progress with the overall technological trends, so I am keen to see topics that ensure the audience can stay up to date with what’s happening, learn about new technologies and what it means to them as safety practitioners. Automated driving of course continues to be a key topic as well as new propulsion technologies.
I myself am also interested in keeping up with safety advances related to automated driving as well as how safety processes as well as safety management need to be aligned and adopted to how a specific organization works.
