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Increasing safety standards in auto industry

Environmental obligations and safety standards are one of the most critical issues automotive industry is facing today.

Environmental obligations and safety standards are one of the most critical issues automotive industry is facing today. Manufacturers around the world are adopting stringent measures to cope up with the criterion of their respective governments. India in the past decade has significantly progressed in this field and is gradually aligning with international safety standards. In this respect, some of the recent safety measures created by the manufacturers are discussed below.

Mahindra?s SafeEye technology

Mahindra and Mahindra, one of the largest manufacturer of vehicles in the country has come up with a new concept for school kids. In the beginning of this year, company introduced a highly sophisticated minivan Maxximo backed up with ?SafeEye? technology. The path breaking solution is its the first-of-a-kind in a school vehicle. It offers a range of solutions for the parents, principals and vehicle drivers to ensure maximum safety of the school children. The SafeEye technology keeps an eagle eye on the wards through live video streaming backed up by GPS technology on a 3G network module, all which can be accessed via Android app.

The SafeEye also offers SMS alert feature and location tracker which keeps parents and school authorities up-to-date. It also tracks driving habits of the vehicle operator and the route. Maxximo Mini Van VX has become one of the safest transport vehicles for school children. Other features include jolt free ride, child locks on the sliding doors, robust PSPV braking system, fire extinguisher, emergency exit, first aid kit, etc.

Cars with mandatory Child Restraint System

Lately adopted, the Child-Restraint-System (CRSA) is one of the first initiatives from the Indian government towards child?s safety. All the passenger cars from October 1st 2014 shall come equipped with CRS system. It is just a hard back seat with harness that keeps your lil’ ones safe and secure in case of any mishap. The system is mandatory in the west and most of the developed countries for a long time now. Seeing the ever growing accident casualties in the country, the Indian government has made it mandatory for all the manufacturers to install this feature in their cars from coming October 1st.

Beside this, it would be mandatory for the manufacturer or dealer to guide through fitment and the entire system to the customers. CRS are different from airbags but does the same job for children. Airbags are built for adults and unless the seatbelts are strapped properly, the airbags would not work. A child cannot be fitted comfortably in seatbelts due to the size so these CRS are specially designed seats that provide protection to the child with seatbelt harness that covers the entire body. In case of any mishap, these CRS would ensure that children are firmly seated and do not bear much of the impact. Developed countries have also made mandatory the use of airbags in the car although most of the manufacturers in India are providing these features as standard but it is still not a regulation. If adopted, these initiatives would probably bring down the casualty figure in road accidents in the country.

Ford revolutionary Inflatable Seat Belts

Recently, Ford Motors has come up with a breakthrough technology in terms of passenger safety. The company has invented Inflatable Seat Belts which work normally like the traditional seat belts in the warm driving conditions but in case of any mishap, the tubular airbags incorporated in the seatbelts starts inflating. The airbags bulges out of the seatbelts covering the entire torso and neck region ultimately minimizing injuries.

Ford says this technology can also be incorporated in other transportations like airplanes, helicopters, trains, military purposes, etc. The company also claimed that in their extensive testing, they observed that these inflatable seat belts are able to tolerate five times more crash pressure than the conventional ones. Ford will also patent this technology so that this could be easily accessible for other manufacturers. These seatbelts have already been installed in Ford Explorer, Ford Fusion, Ford Flex and upcoming Ford F 150.

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First published on: 02-06-2014 at 21:25 IST
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