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Hope to get safer cars by next year

Safer mobility is one of the biggest signs of a mature market, and India with its new regulatory regime is inching faster to the global standards of passive and adaptive passenger safety, to shed its notorious tag of highest accidental deaths on its overcrowded roads.

The new safety apparatus is taking not just cars into the safer league, but also two wheelers, buses and other vehicles, where volumes are one of the highest in the world. India is world largest market for two wheelers, buses and three wheelers and ranks fifth in cars.

Automakers are bringing in newer technologies to adjust to the Indian consumer, which has traditionally been more price-sensitive than brand conscious, where a discount still keeps him most interested

All the new cars launched in India have to meet the crash test norms commonly referred a “Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Programme” where a host of frontal, side-impact, off-set and pole impact tests will be conducted to make new age vehicles far more safer.

Most of the manufacturers have started to redesign and reshape their existing vehicle to meet the deadline of next year for their current models which get an extra year to match up to the standards.

While the child restraint systems (in cars) are already in place, one should expect all passenger vehicles to be airbag compliant along with infused sensors to make them future-ready for telematics and other upgradations.

As a leading motoring journalist, I can say that increasing prices was never really an option for automakers in India given the price-sensitive nature of the Indian customer, but with the new regime they are pro-actively re-engineering costly equipment and materials with some new concepts to reduce this heaving burden of high motoring deaths.

Though it took more than 140,000 deaths every year, or one death and four injuries every minute (reported by WHO), making India a dubious distinction of reporting the highest number of road fatalities in 2016 , for the Centre to sit up and take notice.

A highly aspirational buy, cars and other passenger vehicles have witnessed tremendous growth over the past two decades making India the fifth-largest car maker, and biggest producer of two-wheelers, three-wheelers and buses, a consumer gold mine.

Most of the serious players like Maruti Suzuki’ CV Raman who heads its entire R&D as Executive Director (Engineering) told me that the general perception towards safety has changed and customers now  are experimenting with a host of optional safety packages much ahead of the regulations.

Over the next decade, India is set to take giant steps not only in terms of how people drive their cars, especially going all-electric by 2030, but also overhaul the way they are conceived, developed and manufactured. Also much work is already has already begun in improving our roads and highways where these will be driven.

There’s something for two wheelers which form the bulk of the over twenty million vehicles sold every year here. So, they will have their headline all time on something akin to the ‘Daytime Running Lights” in cars and SUV’s to enhance their conspicuity in the day and minimize crashes. Meanwhile combi-brakes for super sure stopping along with added advantages of superior anti-lock brakes will become a norm soon.