There is no denying that functional safety remains a hot topic and will continue to be one for several years. That said, ISO 26262 is more mature now than a year ago and the focus has now shifted to fine-tuning processes that already exist and working towards the third edition.

The red-hot topic right now is the impact of artificial intelligence on functional safety, with the new ISO/PAS 8800 standard, focusing on safety in AI, on everyone’s minds right now. With the recent publication of ISO/PAS 8800, questions are already arising on requirements and implications of the standard, compliance with ISO 26262, AI model training, and AI explainability among other areas.

SOTIF has become a bigger topic for anyone that is dealing with safety for and impact of AI. And combining safety and security continues to remain a major challenge.

On behalf of Automotive IQ, I sincerely thank the automotive functional safety community for their support of the conference over the years and anticipate your participation at the 16th Anniversary edition of the Automotive Functional Safety Week 2026, in Germany.