Synopsys: Certifying Hardware IP for AI-Enabled Vehicles

Synopsys has become the first company in the world to achieve product certification for ISO/PAS 8800, the standard defining safety requirements for AI in road vehicles. The certification, delivered through independent evaluation by SGS-TÜV Saar, applies to a conventional hardware IP product supplied for use within AI-driven automotive systems.

About Synopsys

Synopsys, Inc. is an American multinational electronic design automation (EDA) company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, focused on the design and verification of silicon chips, electronic system-level design and verification, and reusable intellectual property (IP). Synopsys supplies tools and services to the semiconductor design and manufacturing industry, including implementation tools for digital and analog circuits, simulators and debugging environments. In 2024, Synopsys was listed as the 12th largest software company in the world.

A hardware IP supplier taking the lead on AI safety

As a supplier of intellectual property into the automotive supply chain, Synopsys wanted to lead on safety certification for its products. The certification was structured as a System Element out of Context (SEooC) – a category not directly defined within ISO/PAS 8800 itself. This meant working from ISO 26262 functional safety as the starting point, then extending the assessment to meet ISO/PAS 8800. Notably, the IP under assessment was conventional hardware IP, not an AI component, assessed for its role in supporting AI-enabled systems.

Reviewing safety and AI lifecycle requirements

We reviewed Synopsys's AI lifecycle requirements against ISO/PAS 8800, alongside a review of the safety-related documentation supporting the certification.

Setting a new benchmark for trustworthy AI

As the automotive industry moves toward physical AI, vehicles are increasingly transforming into intelligent, software-defined systems that perceive their environment, make real-time decisions and act in the physical world. As autonomy expands and AI workloads move to the edge, the reliability of underlying data becomes fundamental to the reliability of the AI itself.

Following independent evaluation by SGS-TÜV Saar, Synopsys became the first company in the world to achieve product certification for ISO/PAS 8800. Synopsys has described the milestone as setting a new benchmark for secure, predictable communication inside next-generation vehicles, and as signaling a broader shift in how the industry defines and ensures AI safety.

A global first, verified independently

Synopsys selected SGS-TÜV Saar, noting that it was first to provide this certification service. The independent evaluation underpinning this milestone was carried out by SGS-TÜV Saar.