[dZired]

In an attempt to curb rising road accidents and fatalities, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has released a new notification that mentions that airbags will be mandatory to be a standard feature on all new cars, starting from October 2017. Additionally, rear parking sensors, speed warning systems and seatbelt reminders have also been added to the mandatory standard feature list. It was earlier reported that Airbags will be made mandatory from October 2018.

The presence of airbags, even on the base models of all cars, will surely help in reducing fatalities due to accidents. The government claims that making rear parking sensors a standard feature is a result of various reported cases where reversing vehicles have hit small children that the driver wasn't able to see. With the sensors made standard, incidents of cars running over children are expected to go down.

Additionally, the notification also mandates the presence of a speed warning system on all cars. This system will notify the driver when the car's speed goes over 80 km/h, while once the car crosses the 100 km/h mark, a constant audio alert will be engaged, thus forcing the driver to slow down.

Meanwhile, the Government is also working on starting its own crash tests under the Bharat NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme). These tests will include a frontal crash at 64 km/h, a side impact crash at 50 km/h, and pedestrian protection tests. The government has notified October 2017 to be the deadline for all new cars to pass the Bharat NCAP crash tests.

Source: ET Auto

Link to Team-BHP News

[Sherlocked]

Good initiative but IMO ABS should also have been made mandatory.
An Airbag might protect the occupant in case of an accident but having ABS may prevent the accident altogether.

[silverado]

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

Good initiative but IMO ABS should also have been made mandatory.An Airbag might protect the occupant in case of an accident but having ABS may prevent the accident altogether.

Yes totally agree with you, and hoping it will be made mandatory soon after.
This is going to affect all the low end cars which do not come with airbags in any of the variants, for Eg Omni,Nano, Redi-go etc.

And those speed warnings should be present in such a way that it cannot be easily tampered with.

Though I feel 80 kmph is too slow a speed for today's highways and cars that we have.

[MorePower]

Welcome move. And not a moment too soon! Making these safety features mandatory on all cars will certainly help bring down the rising numbers of road fatalities. But this move needs to be complemented with a host of other regulations to enforce discipline amongst drivers. Else idiots behind the wheels of cars loaded with safety features will continue to be as dangerous as the idiots driving the relatively unsafe cars of today!

[landcruiser123]

Good move, but how come ABS isn't compulsory? Preventing the accident is better than reducing damage caused by accidents.

While making airbags compulsory would reduce the number of deaths, the number of accidents can be reduced only by a good education and a much-improved system for testing to get a license.

Also, any news on side curtain airbags?

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by dZired

Additionally, the notification also mandates the presence of a speed warning system on all cars. This system will notify the driver when the car's speed goes over 80 km/h, while once the car crosses the 100 km/h mark, a constant audio alert will be engaged, thus forcing the driver to slow down.

Now this is a little worrisome. You build 6 and 8-laned highways and then want to restrict people below 100 kmph? Even some of the newer highways have a speed limt of 100 kmph or higher. This is a little bothersome in my opinion. A continuous alert should only be engaged when you cross beyond a grace speed limit. I think >120kmph is a more meaningful limit for a continuous alert to trigger.

[bhavik.1991]

Originally Posted by Zappo

Now this is a little worrisome. You build 6 and 8-laned highways and then want to restrict people below 100 kmph? Even some of the newer highways have a speed limt of 100 kmph or higher. This is a little bothersome in my opinion. A continuous alert should only be engaged when you cross beyond a grace speed limit. I think >120kmph is a more meaningful limit for a continuous alert to trigger.

I see a lot of Omnis, Ecos, Boleros, Toofans & Tata Sumos running continuously at 100+ kmph like there is no tomorrow. I think the speed limit here is totally justifed. In fact, I never felt confident at 120 kmph in my Swift Dzire (non-abs version).

On contrary, 100 kmph limit for my Jetta sounds like a joke. Ideally, the speed limit should be decided based on breaking distance. They can include breaking distance in safety test as well.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by dZired

Additionally, the notification also mandates the presence of a speed warning system on all cars. This system will notify the driver when the car's speed goes over 80 km/h, while once the car crosses the 100 km/h mark, a constant audio alert will be engaged, thus forcing the driver to slow down.

I guarantee you, every neighbourhood garagewala will figure out how to disable this and it will become a must-do thing after buying a new car.

[torque!!]

Airbags, reverse sensors and seat belt warnings are absolutely welcome. But I am a bit concerned about the constant beeping above 100 kmph. I think this will cause more driver irritation and create more problems than what it tries to address. The speed limits are set a bit too low. Alert at 100, a beep every few minutes at 120 and constant beeping at 140 is perhaps more in-line with today’s bigger cars and highways.

[shankar.balan]

I think that they should make ABS absolutely mandatory in India. All cars and bikes will most certainly benefit from this.

This mandatory dual airbag rule is also very welcome indeed.

Im just wondering what will happen to vehicles like the Maruti Gypsy and Tata Nano and Mahindra Thar and Maruti Eeco and Omni and Datsun Redi Go and other similar, in this case, not to mention all the other low end variants that seem to be rife in the market, with no safety features to speak of.

Will this result in some models being discontinued or will they do a retro fit job on them and add in the mandatory safety kit ( I guess this is not too far out, considering that all these self same cars do have safety kit, in their Foreign Avatars).

Lets wait and see what the manufacturers do over the next one year, in order to comply!

Good times for Indian consumers for sure.

[Arjun Reddy]

A very welcome move. ABS mandatory would have made it better.
I would think the crash test ratings to be displayed on the cars and brochures should be made mandatory. What's the point of having ABS and Airbags if the car has no structural integrity ?
Last thing we would want is manufacturers to reduce the structural integrity of the cars to compensate for the additional cost incurred on the Airbags.
Looking at what the VW group have done with the whole pollution cheat devices , we can't take chances with structural integrity.
My two cents.

[nishsingh]

Just out of curiosity, from October 2017, is it mandatory for the car manufacturers to offer dual front airbags, or will they get away with offering just one?

I am asking this because I have a good mind to buy the Kwid AMT, but it currently offers just one airbag (the driver side airbag). I can put off my purchase until October if it means that I can get the two front airbags.

[ashis89]

I have a query. Is is mandatory for all the cars being sold after Oct 2017 or, for new models which will be launched after Sept '17? If former is the case, many models will go out of production as they might not be structurally suitable to install an airbag (ex: Omni?).

[chncar]

This is a great move and long overdue, but at a minimum the following should be required:

• Airbags
• ABS
• ESC
• Rear Wash and Wipe
• Day-night mirror
• ORVM on both sides of the car, not just the right side
• Seatbelt alarms

Let automakers cut or make optional features like decals/stickers, DRLs and alloy wheels and give safety features instead, if they are concerned about cost.

There should also be fines for the idiots who drive around with the ORVMs folded, and in general an upping for fine for bad driving habits. As per current law, all hell breaks loose if you are in some kind of accident, but the behavior of people on the road that leads to accidents is not addressed.

[Tanmay K]

In June it was reported that ABS will be mandatory too (by Oct 2018). It didn't make the list or maybe the journalist wasn't sure if ABS is included for the 2017 mandate or not. Link

As far as structural strength is concerned, I totally expect budget car manufacturers to do the least required to meet the standards. If these standards are not revised, we will continue to have tin cans in the budget segment. Well, tin cans with airbags.

But the move is still very welcome.

For cars like Omni or Nano, I believe they can be tweaked to meet the requirements post Oct 2017. It's not that cars without long bonnets are necessarily totally unsafe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnI-LiKCtuE

I tried looking for the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways circular for details, couldn't find one the internet.