[k_kumar]

Originally Posted by shaheenazk

A thief may bang the car purposely to unlock and then commit heist.

It's not that kind of impact; it's the collision impact associated with orders of magnitude greater force. As far as I know, crash sensors detect this impact primarily by measuring the resulting rapid acceleration/deceleration.

[gb97ce6]

And auto lock doors once vehicle starts moving please. I sorely miss this in the lower variant of i10 when taking kids along.

[kiku007]

Curious.

What are the cars that don't provide a passenger airbag as standard equipment even if it's just their lowest variant?

[sam264_2000]

Good move by the government however more is needed. Rear defogger and rear wash wipe must be made mandatory too. These are safety features and not "external convenience" as some manufacturers call out.

[k_kumar]

Originally Posted by kiku007

Curious.

What are the cars that don't provide a passenger airbag as standard equipment even if it's just their lowest variant?

Couple of examples from the market leader's stable - Alto and Celerio. In the latter, passenger airbag is not standard even in the top ZXi variant (buyer can opt for it in all variants).

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

The Govt has finally got the approval from apex technical committee on Vehicle Standards to make Airbags standard for passenger side also. This would be irrespective of any model cars.

While the timeline is yet to be drawn, Govt has issued draft notification for making the safety standards amendment.

Excellent! GoI should push vehicle manufacturers to swiftly incorporate such basic things into all models. Given the traditional apathy of some domestic manufacturers and the doublespeak of their owners/CEOs, they will fight tooth-and-nail against any such changes quoting a myriad number of reasons.

As the famous quote goes, "If you've got them by the bxxls, their hearts and minds will follow."

[samuelv]

Good move by the government. Manufacturers should have used common sense and made it compulsory without any intervention. Also, since tyre bursts are also a substantial reason for accidents, should TPMS also be offered as standard?

Regards
Sam

[GT Racer]

Safety is first or we think about this vice versa in our parts of the world atleast. Things are progressing for good and the major role is of International agenda pushing for safer, greener cars thus the jump towards EVs in cities. First, Driver airbag then reverse parking aids, this will push manufacturers to skimp on 15-20 inch screens, fragnance disposer while giving us more number of airbags & rigid construction use of ultra high/high tensile steel more in the chasis of cars.

For example see the Kia seltos tech line no option to get 6 airbags for that you have to get the top gt trim thus you will end up with those red accents & unneccesary features. Get me 6 airbags in tech line top trim, no doubts about it. Just pushing safety features more rather than stupid features, give me blind spot monitoring on orvms, I will take it any day rather than giving me ugly low res camera, get us valuable features which help. Safety will paramount when manufacturers will skimp on unnecessary tech.

[Stribog]

I said this in a longish thread once and I say it again now, given the timeframes in which mature markets like Japan, the USA and Europe to legislate auto safety kit like seatbelts and the rate at which we are moving, we are far ahead of the curve. Am guessing by 2030 or so we will have comparably safe cars to any other market.

Reminder that,

Only on Sept 1, 1998 (yes, 1998) did the US mandate airbags on driver and passenger sides.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-...20front%20seat.

The UK got there only in 1991-

https://www.smmt.co.uk/2015/02/car-s...l%20passengers.

Seatbelts were mandated in the US only in 1968 and many states did not adopt these laws for a long time, I think there is one state (forget which) that still does not have a law mandating seatbelts.

The UK got there only in 1983.

China mandated seatbelts only in 2003 (India got there in 1994).

In my opinion, the laws on automobile safety will keep getting tightened till we achieve parity with Euro standards by 2030, with implementation by the mid 2030's.

Now if only we can drill things like lane discipline...

[KPR]

Welcome move by Govt. Even commercial pick up trucks/vans like Bolero, Dost, Ace etc., should get these dual airbags. Poor drivers and cleaners. Their safety matters too.

[AutoNoob]

Originally Posted by Stribog

I said this in a longish thread once and I say it again now, given the timeframes in which mature markets like Japan, the USA and Europe to legislate auto safety kit like seatbelts and the rate at which we are moving, we are far ahead of the curve.

IMHO, this is more to do with understanding of problem and availability of technological solutions in those times. 1968, 1983, 1991... and so on, vehicles were going through evolution in the understanding of basic safety concerns and finding solutions to those.

However, if we look at manufacturers in India, they formed a cartel named SIAM and deliberately kept well known & proven safety measures away from Indian market. Their excuse : Indian customers can't afford these, speeds on Indian roads is not high, Indian customers are not aware and lack basic sense to wear seatbelts, Indian customers upgrading from 2W to tin-cans on 4W are already much safer and many more.

If the customers could be 'educated' about the fuel economy, low maintenance cost etc., they could have been educated about safety. But no one put efforts in this direction. Even for Tata & Mahindra, safety (GNCAP ratings) is basically a way to outsmart competition. If they were leaders in this market, I wonder if they had similar approach.

PS: Vehicles (or any technology) will keep going through evolution, but its the mindset that needs to change for the educated experienced bean counters.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by AutoNoob

IMHO, this is more to do with understanding of problem and availability of technological solutions in those times. 1968, 1983, 1991... and so on, vehicles were going through evolution in the understanding of basic safety concerns and finding solutions to those.

However, if we look at manufacturers in India, they formed a cartel named SIAM and deliberately kept well known & proven safety measures away from Indian market. Their excuse : Indian customers can't afford these, speeds on Indian roads is not high, Indian customers are not aware and lack basic sense to wear seatbelts, Indian customers upgrading from 2W to tin-cans on 4W are already much safer and many more.

Except, seatbelts were invented in 1885, even before the Model T rolled out, this was used in horse carriages. The 3 point seatbelt was invented in 1958 and yet it was made mandatory to be fitted in all cars and worn by passengers only in 1998 in the most advanced car market, the US. 2003 in China.

Like how we leapfrogged emission norms, the landline telcom route etc, we are relative to the rest of the world skipping generations.

It is an objective fact.

As to the Indian market, till recently the Maruti 800 was the highest selling car, and at those price levels, the market WAS price sensitive.

However as the economy scales up, so does the market and the price threshold, so now we have the Swift as the largest selling car iirc, and more and more safety kit is being mandated.

Context matters no?

Also there is no grand conspiracy here imo, any producer will look to minimise costs, heck auto companies in the US even spun seatbelts as an attack on constitutional rights! It is upto the govt of the day to bring in legislation and which is what is happening now.

[landcruiser123]

I'm glad this is being done. Better late than never - I really hope we can have an NCAP in India with crash tests & ratings. Customers should be given incentives (in insurance & road tax costs) to ensure the manufacturers offer cheaper models.

Originally Posted by Stribog

Like how we leapfrogged emission norms, the landline telcom route etc, we are relative to the rest of the world skipping generations....

Developing countries get the advantages of technological innovations from the first world. India has also leap-frogged highway construction - the quality of highways has significantly gone up in the last 2 decades. We can boast of many excellent highways with speeds of 100-120 km/h.

What is missing is safer cars & better driver education. Latin NCAP & ASEAN NCAP were founded in 2010 & 2011 respectively. It is 2020, I'm still not able to find a details of a proposal for an Indian NCAP where cars would be crash tested and rated.

[abnormalspirit]

Welcome move by Govt. Next govt: should mandate rear adjustable headrest and TPMS

[ph03n!x]

Team, do any of us have experience is providing usable and valuable inputs to the govt. in such policy matters? I think this is a brilliant opportunity for Team BHP as a forum to collect, collate and give a structure to our collective feedback, and communicate it with MoRTH.

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways

Public comments invited for proposed mandatory provision of co-driver airbags

Posted On: 29 DEC 2020 2:29PM by PIB Delhi

In a significant measure to boost passenger safety, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways proposes to make it mandatory that an airbag be provided for the passenger seated on the front seat of a vehicle, next to the driver. The proposed timelines for implementation are 01st April, 2021 for new models and 01st June, 2021 for existing models.

A draft notification no. GSR 797 (E) dated 28th December, 2020 to this effect has been published on the Ministry's website.

Comments/ suggestions are solicited from all stakeholders at the following email address: comments-morth@gov.in within 30 days from the date of notification.

Source