The development of different sensor technologies and powerful signal processing procedures allows the automotive industry to develop new E/E-based safety systems, which may assist and protect drivers and also other traffic participants in very complex situations. The complexity of possible use cases for safety systems on the one hand generates on the other hand a variety of feasible safety concepts to prevent these systems from malfunctioning. But which safety concept is adequate for a specific safety system? It is not conceivable to standardize all possible safety concepts, but to give guidelines to the engineers of how to develop new safety concepts; the automotive industry has started to standardize the process of developing safety – related E/E systems. This paper gives insight into the ongoing standardisation work within ISO TC22/SC3/WG 16 functional safety and how companies have started to apply the draft standard and consequently how this standard may initiate the development of a new state of the art within the area of functional safety in the long term.