Intelligent-vehicle structures are highly integrated with sensors, electronic systems, in-vehicle networks, communications, and cloud services, and these components interact strongly with each other. Such integration results in a pronounced fusion between physical structure and vehicle functions. Accordingly, the associated safety technologies have evolved into a strongly coupled framework that integrates structural safety, functional safety, and information security. This trend may have profound impacts on individuals, industries, and even national strategic interests. With data-flow transmission and interaction taken as the main thread, a comprehensive safety architecture with strong coupling across the structural, functional, and information domains is systematically reviewed. Major gaps are identified, including insufficient adaptability to extreme scenarios, an incomplete understanding of cross-domain coupling mechanisms, and inadequate full life-cycle safety assurance. The coupling between structural dynamic responses under multi-source disturbances and abnormal behaviors in electronic subsystems (perception, control, and connectivity) is further examined. On this basis, a strongly coupled structure-function-information safety and protection approach is proposed, and a safety detection and evaluation mechanism is established by explicitly considering cross-domain parameter interactions. The proposed mechanism supports multi-source risk linkage analysis, coordinated strategy management and control, and quantitative safety assessment. These results can serve as a technical reference for the large-scale deployment of intelligent vehicles and the improvement of related safety standards.
