Electronic control units (ECUs) are used in a wide range of electronic products. During their development, they are typically exercised by a test system that simulates the real-world environment in which the ECU will operate – this is known as Hardware-in-the-Loop HIL simulation. An ECU usually relies on information from many connected sensors to determine how it should function. These sensors often work in hostile environments, such as a car engine bay, and failures often occur due to corrosion, aging, damage or even faulty installation. Safety-critical controllers usually go through a certification process where a series of common real-life faults, such as short and open circuits, are introduced by the HIL simulation system and the ECU response is checked to see that it operates in a safe and predictable manner. Automated Fault Insertion solutions allow these verification tests to be run in a controlled and repeatable way. In this video, we will highlight the types of faults that can be injected and look at some of the COTS hardware available.