Safety braking features such as electronic stability control and autonomous braking are set to become a mandatory feature on all passenger cars sold in India by as soon as 2022 or 2023.
The new was announced by Abhay Damle, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways speaking at “Stop The Crash” event organised by Global NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) at Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida.
Global NCAP has partnered with other companies such as Bosch, Continental, ZF and others who engage in manufacturing braking systems and other ancillaries.
“Features such as anti-lock braking have already been mandatory in two-wheelers and by next month (October 2018) all new cars will have a pedestrian safety feature including a new design of the bonnet to reduce the impact on pedestrians during accidents,” Mr Damle said a statement.
“Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) will be incorporated in new vehicles. ABS and automatic headlights for two-wheelers has already been mandated.”
The “Stop The Crash” campaign also organised demonstration of crash avoidance technologies such as ABS for two-wheelers, ESC and autonomous braking as well.
The message is clear, early adoption of crash avoidance systems like Electronic Stability Control (ESC) as a standard requirement in new cars will help save thousands of Indian lives, said, Rohit Baluja, President of Institute of Road Traffic Education. He was one of the speakers at Stop the Crash event.
ESC and AEB have the potential to avoid thousands of deaths every year in India. The government has mandated a requirement for motorcycle ABS, now Stop the Crash encourages the introduction of ESC & AEB for cars as an important next step, said David Ward, Secretary-General, Global NCAP.