Zephyr: Learnings From Working on Safety Certification in the Open
Talkat Open Source Summit Japan + AI_dev: Open Source GenAI & ML Summit + Automotive Linux Summit 2025 · 2025-12-08..12-10·
summary
Zephyr secures formal concept approval for IEC 61508 in December 2024 and targets 61508 SIL 3 plus ISO 26262 for a kernel-only auditable subset, using an assessor-approved out‑of‑context safety argument and a safety manual. Toolchain: strictdoc for requirements and evidence, SPDX metadata, and Declare integrated into CI. Development runs ~3.5 commits/hr (kernel 8–9), LTS cuts every 2.5 years, test infrastructure costs ~$0.5M; current work focuses on requirements traceability, test coverage gaps, and keeping security fixes compatible with the safety claim.
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chapters (15)
- 0:00Zephyr safety certification intro
- 1:23Defining safety in Zephyr
- 4:13Traditional vs open safety models
- 6:43Zephyr certification strategy
- 9:15Documentation for safety compliance
- 12:30Zephyr repository structure
- 15:44Lessons learned and improvements
- 17:32Safety committee roles
- 19:41Tooling for safety compliance
- 23:31Current certification phase
- 25:56Requirements traceability
- 28:19Efficient testing and automation
- 30:03How to contribute
- 33:15Open source safety standards
- 35:02Maintenance burden and re-certification
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