To further increase trust in simulation, IPG Automotive has had the simulation solution CarMaker certified by TÜV Nord. With the certification, the institution confirms the highest quality standards for the product and facilitates the application in safety-relevant projects for users.

Ever shorter development cycles and high cost pressure result in increasing requirements for vehicle development. Therefore, the need for tools to meet these requirements is growing as well. Simulation solutions such as the CarMaker product family support OEMs and suppliers in testing functions and parts of new vehicles and, as a final step, in validating them according to specific standards. TÜV Nord confirmed the quality of CarMaker for all these requirements in July with the ISO 26262-8 certification for all Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASIL-A to ASIL-D).

To ensure functional safety (FuSa), the ISO standard 26262 defines processes, activities and methods for the development of electrical and electronic systems in vehicles. New safety-critical driving functions and components have to be validated according to this standard to minimize risks and prevent accidents. The quality requirements also apply to the tools used during development. To avoid having to prove the Tool Confidence Level (TCL) in every single validation process, tools themselves can be certified to save users costs and time.

The simulation solution CarMaker successfully obtained this tool certification in July. The experts closely analyze the quality assurance processes and therefore guarantee the correctness of the software’s calculations. With the certification, CarMaker becomes a verified component in the vehicle development process and hence facilitates the release, homologation and validation of driving functions as well as the full vehicle. Users now only have to prove the deltas specific to the individual use cases.
With CarMaker, IPG Automotive offers a solution for the diverse simulation needs, which can now be integrated even more easily into existing processes thanks to the ISO 26262 certification. Chief Technology Officer Dr. Andreas Höfer is convinced: “Simulation is an inherent part of future vehicle development. The ISO 26262 certification demonstrates that our solutions can be trusted. We are pleased that CarMaker will now be even easier to integrate into processes, enabling us to reduce efforts on customer side.”