The MISRA consortium, a world-leading collaboration between manufacturers, component suppliers and engineering consultancies, is celebrating 25 years since the landmark publication of Development Guidelines for Vehicle Based Software.

The guidelines, and the revisions and amendments that have followed, and the broader portfolio of MISRA documents published since then have underpinned significant improvements in vehicular software safety; and the success has seen the principles adopted by many other industries.

The MISRA consortium was conceived in the early 1990s as a project in the UK government’s “SafeIT” programme to develop guidelines for embedded software in road vehicle electronic systems. Membership now consists of members from other industries in the safety-related embedded systems world, alongside automotive companies. The consortium started with eight core members in the funded project, and now consists of a board of ten in voluntary roles.

 

The infographic below shows some significant industry milestones over the last 25 years, and some of the key MISRA publications released over this period.