Term · Safety & Security
Fail-safe
A design principle where detected faults lead to a passive safe state, typically by disabling outputs or shutting the function down. It assumes that ceasing to act is itself safe.
- Also known as
- Fail silent
- Type
- Term
- Domain
- Safety & Security, Safety mechanisms
Notes
Adequate for a driver-supervised car, where the human is the fallback, but not for higher levels of automated driving.
Related terms
Part of the Safety & Security glossary, with every term in the topic and the lifecycles, tools and standards that use them.
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Skills
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