Linux can be used in safety-critical systems, but a Linux kernel or distribution is not, by itself, proof that a particular system is safe or certified. The Linux Foundation launched the Enabling Linux in Safety Applications (ELISA) project on February 21, 2019, to help companies build the shared tools, processes, documentation and use cases they need to show how a specific Linux-based system addresses applicable safety requirements.
Why safety-critical Linux needs more than reliable code
In safety engineering, the question is not simply whether Linux runs reliably. A company must show that the complete system meets its safety objectives in its intended use and operating environment. That means accounting for hazards and the system’s responses to conditions such as user errors, hardware failures and environmental changes.
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The Linux Foundation’s 2019 launch announcement identified a practical obstacle: companies lacked clear documentation and tools to demonstrate that a Linux-based system meets the necessary safety requirements for certification. Evidence can involve reliability, quality assurance, risk management, development processes and documentation—not just the behavior of an individual software component.
Kate Stewart, then The Linux Foundation’s Senior Director of Strategic Programs, described the gap: “The challenge has been the lack of the clear documentation and tools needed to demonstrate that a Linux-based system meets the necessary safety requirements for certification,” the launch release said on February 21, 2019.
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What ELISA contributes
ELISA is a collaborative open-source project. Its role is to develop common methods and resources that companies and safety stakeholders can use when building Linux-based safety-critical applications and preparing to demonstrate that those systems meet relevant requirements. The project builds on earlier work including SIL2LinuxMP and Real-Time Linux.
ELISA’s work includes reference documentation and use cases, shared tools and processes, and opportunities for community feedback and quality-assurance automation. It also aims to help open-source developers understand safety engineering, help safety professionals understand open-source development, and support monitoring of incidents and hazards in critical components. The project’s current description says members work with certification authorities and standardization bodies.
These resources support the safety case for a particular system; they do not certify Linux as a whole. A certification decision concerns a specific system in its intended context, and project membership or use of Linux alone is not certification.
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At launch, the project pointed to robotics, medical devices, smart factories, transportation and autonomous driving as possible application areas for Linux-based safety-critical applications. These are examples of domains where companies may need to address safety requirements; they are not claims that Linux use in any of those sectors is automatically safety-certified.
Who joined ELISA
The organizations named as ELISA’s founding members in the February 21, 2019 launch announcement were Arm, BMW Car IT GmbH, KUKA, Linutronix and Toyota.
Membership has changed since launch, so later announcements are best read as dated snapshots rather than a permanent roster. In a February 26, 2026 announcement, ELISA said NVIDIA had joined as a Premier member and identified Boeing and Red Hat as existing Premier members at that time. A March 17, 2025 Linux Foundation announcement said Honda and KernelCI had joined; it described KernelCI as a community-based distributed test-automation system focused on Linux kernel quality, stability and long-term maintenance.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to follow or contribute to the project
ELISA’s official site invites people to take part through mailing lists, community discussions and meetings, working groups, contributions to tools and documentation, and events. Its news listing showed posts and workshop coverage through September 2026, including material on AI tooling and requirements, mixed-criticality architectures, latency monitoring and Tools Working Group activity. Published activity demonstrates that the project continues to communicate and organize work; it does not establish that any particular deliverable is complete or that a system has been certified.
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