[TusharK]

The Bharat NCAP program was launched by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in October 2023. It has now been revealed that the second phase of the program will roll out in October 2027, and technologies like ADAS will be part of the updated protocol.



Ujjwala Karle, Deputy Director, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), recently spoke about the need for localizing emerging technologies like ADAS, its features, and testing. She said that ARAI is in the process of setting up a dedicated ADAS test track spread over an 18-acre plot on the outskirts of Pune.

Currently, the Bharat NCAP test protocols are largely based on the Global NCAP program. Media reports suggest that nine task forces are being set up to “further Indianise the Bharat NCAP program”.

The report also mentions that the AIS 185 standard may be updated to include a ‘vulnerable road users’ category. Besides this, new standards for ADAS are also being formulated.

Source: ET Auto

Link to Team-BHP News

[saikishor]

They've put up such a poor show with the first iteration itself. BNCAP is very lazy IMO, I do not see any proactiveness with BNCAP unlike GNCAP.

[ToThePoint]

BNCAP is simply a "me-too" program to show our transport department cares. Fact is they don't. So best is to make a museum out of the facility instead of wasting any more precious resources and tax payers money. Better to leave the evaluation to GNCAP.

The funds can be channelized towards far better prospects which are in dire need - scientific design of roads, cross sections, synced signals, CCTV and high speed cameras, point based license system, link insurance to driving history etc etc

[r2212xx]

Good move. While they may be slow at bringing more cars into their test facilities, including ADAS in the test could pave the way for its inclusion into more budget cars down the line. We are already seeing the pressures these NCAPs have created (Dzire getting a five-star rating, Celerio getting six airbags as standard). If not superior ADAS levels, at least basic driver assistance features could greet buyers of budget and entry-level cars.

[kadanaJ]

The BNCAP program has IMO been underwhelming. The vast majority of cars sold on the market today have not been tested by BNCAP.



Only ~13 models (depending if you count EV models as one or separate) have been tested out of 91 passenger cars currently on sale in the market. Thats only 14.3% of cars on sale that have been tested by BNCAP.

It seems the only cars being sent to BNCAP are the models manufacturers are confident about, as barring the Citroen Basalt, every model tested has achieved 5-stars.

Kudos to Mahindra and Tata for having more than half their models tested by BNCAP.

The Maruti Dzire which recently got a 5-star safety rating, was awarded that by GNCAP, not BNCAP.

*Notes on the above:
Mahindra: XEV 9E, BE 6, Thar and Thar Roxx taken as separate models for total # of models on sale
Tata: Tested models taken from BNCAP website, which lists the EVs separately. Have considered them as 1 for # of models tested. Safari/Harrier taken as one model by BNCAP. Have counted as 2.

Safer cars for India is not a reality until over 95% of models available for sale have been tested by BNCAP.

[Bhodrolok]

All NCAP testing has always been voluntary, companies dont see a need to test unless they know they will do well. And clearly the larger car buying audience does NOT seem to care since Suzuki, Hyundai & Kia are still happily selling under-engineered cars.

[ron178]

Originally Posted by Bhodrolok

All NCAP testing has always been voluntary

Voluntary = not required for homologation, not voluntary as in the choice of cars is left entirely to the industry.

NCAPs have been buying and testing their own cars since at least 1997, right from the first ever Euro NCAP round where TRL bought the cars and carmakers were only asked to supply data.

In general, doing only sponsored testing allows brands whose safety credentials have rarely been questioned to simply not bother with testing — MG, Toyota and Honda for example don’t have a single model on sale with a valid rating.

The idea behind sponsored testing is supposed to be that NCAPs can put their sponsors’ money to better use, eg. high sellers or models that history or common sense would suggest are likely problematic. NOT to make the program entirely voluntary (BNCAP), or to justify leaving non-sponsored cars partially tested (GNCAP).

[Draunzer21]

Ideally BNCAP should just voluntarily take each and every car that is getting launched, test it and put its rating on the portal. This would help car buyers to take better decisions and this would in general help us understand importance of BNCAP. Testing Tata and Mahindra which already are 5* most of the time is good but not helping the masses on a larger scale.