Why Static Analysis Is Key to Meeting ADAS Safety Standards

Recent crashes involving vehicles with automated driving systems (ADS) and ADAS have drawn increased regulatory scrutiny. Between June 2021 and June 2024, nearly 4,000 incidents were reported involving these systems.

For context, there are millions of lines of code guiding real-time decision-making in autonomous vehicles, so even the smallest defect could lead to severe consequences on the road.

This complexity, coupled with tightening safety standards like ISO 26262, ISO 21448, MISRA, and UNECE Regulation No. 157, demands a proactive approach to software quality. Static code analysis combined with automated testing measures are critical components in this process.

In this article, we look at how static code analysis and automating CI/CD throughout the development cycle can enhance the safety of software-critical vehicles.

ADAS Roles in SDVs and Key Functionality

ADAS is a major software-driven feature in SDVs. It utilizes advanced software to provide critical driving assistance capabilities, including collision avoidance, adaptive cruise control, and automated parking.
To improve system performance, enable fluid communication between components, and ensure real-time coordination across various subsystems such as braking, steering, throttle control, and other critical functions, ADAS relies on centralized electronic architectures.

These architectures use high-performance central computing units to process sensor data, perform sensor fusion, and execute advanced decision-making to enhance vehicle safety and automation.
To deliver advanced features on SDVs, ADAS features the following functionalities.

Collision Avoidance and Emergency Braking

ADAS uses radar, LiDAR, and cameras to detect potential collisions. The system can warn the driver or autonomously apply emergency braking to reduce the likelihood of rear-end collisions.

Adaptive Systems for Improved Control

Adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assistance continuously monitor traffic conditions, adjust speed and steering to maintain safe distances and keep vehicles centered in their lanes. These systems make real-time adjustments to ensure better control in dynamic traffic situations.

Vision and Detection Systems

Using sensor fusion and computer vision, ADAS can identify obstacles, road signs, lane markings, and pedestrians, which boosts safety during low-visibility and nighttime driving.

Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)

CommunicationV2X communication allows vehicles to interact with nearby infrastructure, pedestrians, and other vehicles, enhancing situational awareness and helping prevent accidents before they occur.

Navigation and Guidance Systems

ADAS integrates high-definition maps and GPS to provide real-time navigation, lane-level guidance, and route optimization, ensuring more efficient and safer travel.

Challenges in Developing ADAS

Like every safety-critical software system, building advanced driver assistance systems is a complex task. Its use cases largely need to answer safety-critical questions like:

• Is the software safe for use?
• Does it pass regulatory compliance?
• How long can it stand the test of real-time performance demands?

Hence, for an ADAS system to get into the market, it must operate flawlessly in unpredictable driving scenarios, where even minor errors can lead to catastrophic consequences.

As a result, one major challenge developers face is ensuring functional safety, as outlined in standards like ISO 26262.

This standard defines safety measures for electronic systems in vehicles and requires rigorous processes to mitigate risks from hardware or software failures. For example, it mandates assigning Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASILs) to potential hazards and implementing fault-tolerant designs to meet these safety goals.

Ensuring real-time performance is another hurdle that developers must deal with. ADAS systems process vast amounts of sensor data, such as from cameras, LiDAR, ultrasonic sensors, infrared sensors, GNSS receivers and IMUs to make split-second decisions. Standards like ISO 21448 (Safety of the Intended Functionality) address this by focusing on minimizing risks from system limitations in complex environments.

Compliance with evolving regulations adds further complexity. UNECE Regulation No.157, for instance, governs Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS), requiring stringent testing under specific conditions. Similarly, ISO/SAE 21434 ensures cybersecurity safeguards against potential attacks on vehicle systems.

To overcome these challenges, organizations are falling back on automated testing platforms like Parasoft, which helps development teams sniff out errors before codes are pushed into a production environment.

Parasoft’s automated testing solutions are tailored for compliance with automotive standards like ISO 26262, ISO 21434, AUTOSAR C++14, and MISRA.

For instance, using Parasoft C/C++test, teams can perform static analysis and dynamic analysis to detect defects and vulnerabilities early in the development life cycle, and ensure compliance through customizable dashboards and detailed reports.

This approach not only accelerates time-to-market but also ensures the delivery of safe, secure, reliable, and compliant ADAS software.

Role of Static Analysis in ADAS Development

Static code analysis plays a crucial role in ensuring software reliability by detecting bugs, vulnerabilities and compliance issues before the code is ever executed.

Why Static Analysis Matters

Unlike dynamic testing, which requires running the software, static analysis inspects the code at rest, identifying defects early in development. This helps catch potential failures before they become costly issues. It also improves code quality, maintainability, and security, making it an essential tool for ADAS developers.

Control Flow and Data Flow Analysis for Early Defect Detection

ADAS software relies on complex algorithms that process sensor data in real time. Control flow analysis ensures execution paths behave as expected, while data flow analysis tracks how variables change throughout the program. These techniques help uncover race conditions, memory leaks, and unintended behaviors—issues that could otherwise go unnoticed until a real-world failure occurs.

Ensuring Compliance With ISO 26262 and MISRA

ISO 26262 and coding standards for automotive software (MISRA), set strict requirements for ADAS development. Performing static analysis automates compliance by enforcing coding standards, thereby reducing the risk of issues identified out in the field and the need for costly rework.

Parasoft’s Use of AI for Static Analysis

We are in the age of AI and Parasoft is not running behind in the deployment of AI technologies across its ecosystem.

Parasoft static code analysis solutions use advanced AI and ML algorithms to enhance software quality and enforce compliance. Integrating pattern recognition, rule-based analysis, and data flow techniques, the platform automatically detects vulnerabilities, coding errors, and adherence issues in coding languages like C/C++, Java, C#, and VB.NET.

The static analysis solution prioritizes rule violations and offers actionable fixes, thereby reducing remediation time and cost.

To foster Agile development, the solution can also be integrated into CI/CD pipelines to allow teams to iterate rapidly while ensuring safety measures.

Conclusion

Developing safe and reliable ADAS requires more than just innovation. It demands rigorous testing, real-time performance validation, and strict regulatory compliance. With rising safety concerns and increasing recalls, automakers must go beyond meeting standards to ensure these systems perform flawlessly on the road. Parasoft’s automated testing solutions, including static analysis, simulation-based validation, and compliance verification, play a crucial role in bridging the gap between development and real-world safety.