Functional safety is about electronics, electrical and programmable electronic safety-related system which focuses on the potential risk of malfunction in this case the probability and degree of damage to the system. IEC 61508 which was introduced in 2000 has played an important role in functional safety for complex application in electronics, electrical and programmable electronics in a system which failure could have an impact on the safety of humans and/or the environment. It has become a foundation for international standard safetyrelated system for airborne systems, railway, nuclear power plants, medical equipment, energy and process systems, machinery, furnaces and automotive. Nowadays, most of the automobiles are equipped with embedded electronics systems which includes lots of Electronic Controller Units (ECUs), electronic sensors, signals, bus systems and coding. Thus, ISO 26262 has been introduced in November, 2011 for automotive electric/electronic (E/E) systems which address the complete safety installation from sensor to actuator with its technical as well as management issues. In this paper, the international trends on pre and post introduction of ISO 26262 will be analyzed in which to see the direction of potential research in this area.

• Won Jung(Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, Daegu University, Gyeongsan, South Korea)
• Azianti Ismail(Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, Daegu University, Gyeongsan, South Korea)