The increasing of complexity of safety relevant functions, as well as their implementation on distributed components is one of the major issues in automotive engineering. The situation is additionally tightened by challenges arising from the introduction of ISO26262 standard. It is discussed how a model based systems engineering approach enables the integration of the safety activities into the development process to deal with growing complexity and to improve efficiency as well. Finally the extension of the product line engineering approach to work products of safety activities can lead to the step change required to match the capabilities of engineering departments to the complexities of the task at hand.