ADAS WILL SERVE AS CATALYST FOR IMPROVED VEHICLE SAFETY

The automotive industry across the globe is increasingly focussing on safety.

- Suhrid Barua

In fact, safety and related systems are poised to play a crucial role in the industry megatrends of connected, shared, electric and autonomous. It is important to understand that safety systems in the automotive industry were earlier majorly focussed on the four-wheeler passenger vehicle segment, with passive systems playing a key role.

However, the scenario has evolved with the safety technology penetrating across other segments, especially two-wheelers and commercial vehicles. The objective of any mobility solution is to facilitate a secure and safer transfer of people and goods from one location to another. It must be noted that safety systems need to address passenger safety requirements inside a vehicle as well as safety of people outside such as pedestrians, cyclists, and other motorists.

Over the years, passive safety features such as seat belts, airbags, emergency calling and helmets have been widely prevalent and only come into play after an accident has occurred. The positive thing is that passive safety systems in contemporary times are being offered as a standard fitment across segments.

The increasing focus on the need to mitigate road-accident-induced fatalities has paved the way for the emergence of active safety systems in vehicles, wherein the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) technology came to the fore. ADAS features such as lane departure warning, emergency braking systems, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection, parking assist, tyre pressure monitoring system are not just aimed at offering a higher level of driver comfort, but also focussed on ensuring safety of vehicle occupants as well as of pedestrians. These active safety systems first got integrated into premium vehicles and over the years have penetrated into high-powered motorcycles as well as commercial vehicles.