The Rust Foundation and a group of partner companies have launched the Safety-Critical Rust Consortium “to support the responsible use of the Rust programming language in safety-critical software.”

The Rust programming language has been growing in popularity thanks to a combination of factors, such as speed, security, memory safety, and more. As a result, it is increasingly being used in safety-critical software—such as in transportation, energy, and life sciences—and is one of the languages the NSA recommends.

The Foundation is launch is launching the Consortium in partnership with AdaCore, Arm, Ferrous Systems, HighTec EDV-Systeme GmbH, Lynx Software Technologies, OxidOS, TECHFUND, TrustInSoft, Veecle, and Woven by Toyota. The announcement says Consortium membership is open to Foundation members.

Work under the consortium will begin with the creation of a public charter and goals, and meeting minutes will be published on an ongoing basis. The Safety-Critical Rust Consortium will liaise with the Rust Project through Rust Foundation Project Directors and members of Rust Project teams. The Consortium’s scope, which will be fully delineated in the charter, may include the development of guidelines, linters, libraries, static analysis tools, formal methods and language subsets to meet industrial and legal requirements. The Consortium’s deliverables will be developed and licensed in a manner compatible with other Rust Project endeavors.

A number of critical Rust personnel voiced their support and endorsement:

“This is exciting! I am truly pleased to see the Rust Foundation and anyone in the safety-critical space coming together on this topic,” said Graydon Hoare, creator of the Rust programming language.

“Safety is our foremost priority in vehicle software development. Traditionally, achieving the highest levels of safety has been a complex and lengthy endeavor, requiring the use of specialized tools and processes beyond the programming language. We are therefore pleased to collaborate with leading experts in the safety industry to integrate new tools such as Rust into our safety-critical systems,” said JF Bastien, Distinguished Engineer at Woven by Toyota.

“Rust has already established itself as a safe and secure programming language with developers in open source, industry and governments. Now is the time to use that momentum towards bringing Rust as a mainstream language in safety-critical areas, providing processes and specifications that allow Rust to be certified in this space,” said Joel Marcey, Director of Technology at the Rust Foundation.

The Foundation says the creation of the Consortium will help fill a gap in well-established processes and collective industry knowledge.

Rust offers particular advantages in terms of developer ergonomics, productivity and software quality; however, it lacks a deep and established well of safety-processes and collective industry knowledge of safety-critical systems.

Without closing this gap, a developer must primarily rely on best practices and normative precautions, which can limit innovation. Rust developers who stray from the well-trod path can find themselves facing an inquiry were an accident to occur. In these circumstances, anything that seems unusual will be investigated for fault. This risk creates a disincentive to widespread Rust adoption, leaving developers unable to reap all its advantages while potentially facing financial, reputational and moral costs.

The announcement is good news for Rust developers and the Consortium should help the language continue to grow in popularity, while simultaneously fostering continued innovation among developers.