Almost a quarter of a century! To be more precise, Safetronic, the international conference on holistic safety for road vehicles, has been around for 24 years. A lot has happened during this time - and it should stay that way.
April 2, 2025
© Fraunhofer IKS
Over the years, the importance of the Safetronic as an international forum for those responsible for safety and as a platform for discussion has grown continuously: While there were around 50 participants in 2001, the conference has now become a meeting point for up to 170 safety managers.
It all began in 2001, when Hanser Verlag launched an event focusing on functional safety in the automobile. Ten years later, Prof. Dr. Mario Trapp took on the role of Chairman of the event and a program committee was set up, which included experts from the automotive and railroad sectors.
In 2012, the focus was placed exclusively on the automotive application field to promote the practical application of the ISO 26262 safety standard. The following year, Safetronic took an important step towards internationalization: English was introduced as the conference language, initially with simultaneous translation. In addition, the conference moved from Munich to Stuttgart and a call for papers was established.
The Call for Papers is now open until May 9. Please give us and the advisory board plenty of material to read so that we can create an appealing program.
You can find all the important details about the Call for Papers here: https://safetronic.fraunhofer....
In December or January, the organizers and program committee evaluate the feedback from the previous year's participants. This input is extremely important as it contributes to the continuous improvement of the conference and helps to ensure that relevant and recent topics are considered for those interested in safety.
Preparations for the Safetronic-program usually begin in March, when the call for papers starts and consideration of the invited keynote speakers begins. For 2024, we were pleased to see a 40 percent increase in paper submissions, which of course also means a high reading and evaluation effort for the program committee.
The collaboration with the experienced and new committee members for the annual program is characterized by a spirit of innovation, openness to ideas, lively discussions and great support.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Safetronic was able to continue in an online format, which enabled the community to maintain a continuous exchange even under restrictions.
In 2021, the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS took over full responsibility from Carl Hanser Verlag to continuously guarantee a high program quality, with little product marketing and manufacturer independence. The program committee supported this decision and actively accompanied the first Safetronic under new management in November 2021. At the suggestion of the committee and the participants, the focus was shifted from functional to holistic safety of road vehicles.
Program quality is the top priority. This is particularly evident in the support provided to the speakers, so that participants can take away interesting best-practice reports and innovative approaches from OEMs, the supplier industry and start-ups.
The program committee and many participants see the annual conference as a meeting point of the safety community, which is nevertheless open to new faces and ideas. Over a third of participants come to Safetronic regularly.
A personal word at the end: I really enjoy it when the planning takes on the desired reality. And when the participants say goodbye personally with the words “hopefully see you next year”, that is the greatest pleasure for us, the organization team.
In addition to organizing the programme, my colleague Theresa Demmelhuber and I will be on hand to advise interested parties, participants and sponsors before, during and after Safetronic at safetronic@iks.fraunhofer.de
