The Indian government on Tuesday (August 22) launched its own crash test rating structure to assess the safety of new vehicles. The new safety rating system called the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (B-NCAP) will assign star ratings based on a vehicle’s performance during crash tests similar to the global NCAP and European NCAP.&nbsp;

<h2>What is the new safety system about?</h2>

The announcement was made by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highway&nbsp;Nitin Gadkari, who stressed the importance of safer vehicles in India. This comes as hundreds of thousands of people lose their lives in car accidents every year.&nbsp;

The move will bring cars in India in line with global standards, Gadkari said during a press conference.

As per the new system, which will be implemented on October 1, vehicles will be assigned a rating of one to five stars based on crash tests, including crashes from the front and side, and other safety parameters.&nbsp;

The rating will help buyers make an informed decision about the vehicle as well as encourage car makers to upgrade their safety standards, officials have said previously.&nbsp;

ALSO READ |<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/india-426-die-each-day-in-road-accidents-18-per-hour-513143">&nbsp;India: 426 die each day in road accidents; 18 per hour</a>

According to the Indian minister, B-NCAP would also help the auto industry access the export market with both cost and quality propositions.

“This is going to increase the production and give more profits and more number of orders not just in the domestic market but also in the international market,” said Gadkari.&nbsp;

He also said that the government has already received requests to test and certify more than 30 car models from different companies.&nbsp;

<h2>What are the rules now?</h2>

As of now, crash-testing of vehicles in India is not mandatory but a few companies have reportedly gotten some of their vehicles tested at NCAP-accredited centres in Europe. Therefore the move is also being hailed by some since it reduces the cost of shipping and testing vehicles abroad.&nbsp;

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“This move eliminates the need and associated costs of testing vehicles outside (India),” said Myung-Sik Sohn, chief sales and business officer at Kia India, as quoted by Reuters.&nbsp;

Initially, the programme will be voluntary and testing will cost about $72,237 when compared to around $300,988 charged globally, said the Indian officials.&nbsp;

As per data from the Indian government, at least 150,000 people lost their lives due to road accidents in 2022.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies) 
 
&nbsp;

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The Indian government on Tuesday (August 22) launched its own crash test rating structure to assess the safety of new vehicles. The new safety rating system called the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (B-NCAP) will assign star ratings based on a vehicle’s performance during crash tests similar to the global NCAP and European NCAP.

The Indian government on Tuesday (August 22) launched its own crash test rating structure to assess the safety of new vehicles. The new safety rating system called the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (B-NCAP) will assign star ratings based on a vehicle’s performance during crash tests similar to the global NCAP and European NCAP. What is the new safety system about? The announcement was made by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highway Nitin Gadkari, who stressed the importance of safer vehicles in India. This comes as hundreds of thousands of people lose their lives in car accidents every year. The move will bring cars in India in line with global standards, Gadkari said during a press conference. As per the new system, which will be implemented on October 1, vehicles will be assigned a rating of one to five stars based on crash tests, including crashes from the front and side, and other safety parameters. The rating will help buyers make an informed decision about the vehicle as well as encourage car makers to upgrade their safety standards, officials have said previously. ALSO READ | India: 426 die each day in road accidents; 18 per hour According to the Indian minister, B-NCAP would also help the auto industry access the export market with both cost and quality propositions. “This is going to increase the production and give more profits and more number of orders not just in the domestic market but also in the international market,” said Gadkari. He also said that the government has already received requests to test and certify more than 30 car models from different companies. What are the rules now? As of now, crash-testing of vehicles in India is not mandatory but a few companies have reportedly gotten some of their vehicles tested at NCAP-accredited centres in Europe. Therefore the move is also being hailed by some since it reduces the cost of shipping and testing vehicles abroad. ALSO READ | India experiences 79 per cent rise in road accident deaths due to red-light jumping in 2020 “This move eliminates the need and associated costs of testing vehicles outside (India),” said Myung-Sik Sohn, chief sales and business officer at Kia India, as quoted by Reuters. Initially, the programme will be voluntary and testing will cost about $72,237 when compared to around $300,988 charged globally, said the Indian officials. As per data from the Indian government, at least 150,000 people lost their lives due to road accidents in 2022. (With inputs from agencies) WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

India launches Bharat NCAP rating for vehicle safety to curb road accidents

India accounts for a mere three percent of the world’s vehicular population, but a shocking 12 per cent of the world’s road fatalities are reported in India.&nbsp;

According to National Crime Records Bureau data, over 1.55 lakh lives were lost in road crashes across India in 2021 - an average of 426 daily or 18 every single hour - which is the highest death figures recorded in any calendar year so far.&nbsp;

Besides the deaths, 3.71 lakh people were also injured in 4.03 lakh road accidents across the country in 2021.

The NCRB report's data for 2021 also suggested that public transport, like buses, was safer than private modes of conveyance, like motorcycles, cars etc.&nbsp;

The highest number of road accidents every year is attributed to negligent driving and speeding.&nbsp;

This raises a big concern over road safety in India. Experts say, taking care of yourself while driving is the most important thing to do by using safety accessories in the car. And one must know the safety functions like airbags and seat belts in the car.&nbsp;

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/india-it-companies-in-bengaluru-lost-over-28-million-due-to-employees-stuck-in-traffic-jams-513049">India: IT companies in Bengaluru lost over $28 million due to employees stuck in traffic jams</a>

In India, people wearing seat belts is a rare sight. All the cars have rear seat belts (back seat belts), but we have seen very few people using them in India’s financial capital city Mumbai.

"When I am driving locally, I do not use the safety feature of the back seat belt. But when we are on the national highway, we use it sometimes but maximum times we forget to use the back seat belt", says Parth Shah, a resident of Mumbai.&nbsp;

Another Mumbai resident said she never used&nbsp;the back seat belt at all as she doesn’t find it necessary.&nbsp;

What we also observed was a lack of awareness regarding rules. People are aware of rules for front <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/condolences-pour-in-following-death-of-former-tata-sons-head-cyrus-mistry-in-road-accident-512859">passengers to wear seat belts</a>, but maximum were unaware that there is a rule for passengers in the rear seats (back seats) as well.&nbsp;

As stated in Rule 138 (3) of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR),&nbsp;“The driver and the person seated in the front seat or the persons occupying front facing rear seats, as the case may be, wear the seat belts while the vehicle is in motion. Failure to do so can result in a fine of Rs 1,000”.&nbsp;

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the use of rear seat belts can prevent fatality by 25 per cent, and also prevent excess injury or death for the front seat passenger.&nbsp;

Wearing a seat belt while sitting in the rear seat can help reduce the chances of a fatal injury considerably. In case of a collision, an unbuckled passenger will be pushed forward to collide with the front seat or even the dashboard.&nbsp;

Also WATCH |&nbsp;WION Climate Tracker: Relief operations underway in Pakistan, over 1 million homes destroyed so far

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India accounts for a mere three percent of the world’s vehicular population, but a shocking 12 per cent of the world’s road fatalities are reported in India. According to National Crime Records Bureau data, over 1.

India accounts for a mere three percent of the world’s vehicular population, but a shocking 12 per cent of the world’s road fatalities are reported in India. According to National Crime Records Bureau data, over 1.55 lakh lives were lost in road crashes across India in 2021 - an average of 426 daily or 18 every single hour - which is the highest death figures recorded in any calendar year so far. Besides the deaths, 3.71 lakh people were also injured in 4.03 lakh road accidents across the country in 2021. The NCRB report's data for 2021 also suggested that public transport, like buses, was safer than private modes of conveyance, like motorcycles, cars etc. The highest number of road accidents every year is attributed to negligent driving and speeding. This raises a big concern over road safety in India. Experts say, taking care of yourself while driving is the most important thing to do by using safety accessories in the car. And one must know the safety functions like airbags and seat belts in the car. Also read | India: IT companies in Bengaluru lost over $28 million due to employees stuck in traffic jams In India, people wearing seat belts is a rare sight. All the cars have rear seat belts (back seat belts), but we have seen very few people using them in India’s financial capital city Mumbai. "When I am driving locally, I do not use the safety feature of the back seat belt. But when we are on the national highway, we use it sometimes but maximum times we forget to use the back seat belt", says Parth Shah, a resident of Mumbai. Another Mumbai resident said she never used the back seat belt at all as she doesn’t find it necessary. What we also observed was a lack of awareness regarding rules. People are aware of rules for front passengers to wear seat belts, but maximum were unaware that there is a rule for passengers in the rear seats (back seats) as well. As stated in Rule 138 (3) of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR), “The driver and the person seated in the front seat or the persons occupying front facing rear seats, as the case may be, wear the seat belts while the vehicle is in motion. Failure to do so can result in a fine of Rs 1,000”. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the use of rear seat belts can prevent fatality by 25 per cent, and also prevent excess injury or death for the front seat passenger. Wearing a seat belt while sitting in the rear seat can help reduce the chances of a fatal injury considerably. In case of a collision, an unbuckled passenger will be pushed forward to collide with the front seat or even the dashboard. Also WATCH | WION Climate Tracker: Relief operations underway in Pakistan, over 1 million homes destroyed so far

India: 426 die each day in road accidents; 18 per hour

Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered solutions may soon make roads in India a safer place to drive. The Indian government on Tuesday announced that a technology-fueled by AI could reduce the risk of road accidents in the country, which killed over one lakh people in 2020.

In a bid to prevent this from happening, the Indian government said that the AI approach will use a first of its kind dataset consisting of 10,000 images.

It said that this dataset is finely annotated with 34 classes collected from 182 drive sequences on Indian roads obtained from a front-facing camera attached to a car driven around the cities of Hyderabad, Bangalore, and their outskirts.

India's Ministry of Science and Technology said that this unique approach uses the predictive power of AI to identify risks on the road, and a collision alert system to communicate timely alerts to drivers, to make several improvements related to road safety.

It is being implemented in Nagpur, Maharashtra and the government aims to spread it across India.

The project aims to reduce road accidents. According to WHO, road accidents kill as many as 1.35 million people across the world each year.

"The project ‘Intelligent Solutions for Road Safety through Technology and Engineering’ (iRASTE) at Nagpur will identify potential accident-causing scenarios while driving a vehicle and alert drivers about the same with the help of the Advance Driver Assistance System (ADAS).

"The project will identify ‘grey spots’, i.e., by data analysis and mobility analysis by continuously monitoring dynamic risks on the entire road network," the Indian government said.

Grey spots are locations on roads, left unaddressed could become blackspots (locations with fatal accidents).

The system also conducts continuous monitoring of roads and designs engineering fixes to correct existing road blackspots for preventive maintenance and improved road infrastructure, government officials said.

The iRASTE project is under the I-Hub Foundation, IIIT Hyderabad, a Technology Innovation Hub set up in the technology vertical- Data Banks and Data Services, supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

I-Hub Foundation has used techniques ranging from machine learning, computer vision and computational sensing for several other data-driven technological solutions in the mobility sector.

One such solution is the India Driving Dataset (IDD), a dataset for road scene understanding in unstructured environments captured from Indian roads, which deviates from the worldwide assumptions of well-delineated infrastructure such as lanes, limited traﬃc participants, low variation in object or background appearance and strong adherence to traﬃc rules.

The project consortium includes CSIR-CRRI, and Nagpur Municipal Corporation, with Mahindra and Intel as the industry partners.

The Hub is working to coordinate, integrate, and amplify basic and applied research in broad data-driven technologies as well as its dissemination and translation across the country.

One of the primary aims is to prepare a critical resource for the future use by researchers, startups, and industry, mainly in the areas of smart mobility, healthcare along with smart buildings.

"What makes the iRASTE project even more unique is that AI and technology is being applied to create practical solutions, as a blueprint, for Indian conditions. While the initial rollout of iRASTE is in Nagpur, the eventual goal is to replicate the solution in other cities too.

"Currently, talks are on with the Telangana government to adopt the technology in a fleet of buses that ply on highways. There are further plans to extend the scope of iRASTE to Goa and Gujarat also," ministry officials said.

Another dataset called Open World Object Detection on Road Scenes (ORDER) has also been developed using the India Driving Dataset that could be used by autonomous navigation systems in Indian driving conditions for localization and classification of the objects in a road scene.

Besides this, a Mobility Car Data Platform (MCDP) has been designed with several sensors – cameras, LIDARs, with the necessary computing for anyone to capture or process data on the car that can help researchers and start-ups in India test their automotive algorithms and approaches in navigation and research on Indian roads, the Indian ministry said.

A new framework, LaneRoadNet (LRNet), with an integrated mechanism considering lane and road parameters using deep learning, has been designed to address problems of Indian roads, which have several obstacles, occluded lane markings, broken dividers, cracks, potholes, etc. that put the drivers at significant risk while driving, the government said.

In this framework, a road quality score is calculated with the help of a modular scoring function. The final score helps the authorities to assess road quality and prioritize maintenance schedules of the road so as to improve the drivability.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered solutions may soon make roads in India a safer place to drive. The Indian government on Tuesday announced that a technology-fueled by AI could reduce the risk of road accidents in the country, which killed over one lakh people in 2020.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered solutions may soon make roads in India a safer place to drive. The Indian government on Tuesday announced that a technology-fueled by AI could reduce the risk of road accidents in the country, which killed over one lakh people in 2020. In a bid to prevent this from happening, the Indian government said that the AI approach will use a first of its kind dataset consisting of 10,000 images. It said that this dataset is finely annotated with 34 classes collected from 182 drive sequences on Indian roads obtained from a front-facing camera attached to a car driven around the cities of Hyderabad, Bangalore, and their outskirts. India's Ministry of Science and Technology said that this unique approach uses the predictive power of AI to identify risks on the road, and a collision alert system to communicate timely alerts to drivers, to make several improvements related to road safety. It is being implemented in Nagpur, Maharashtra and the government aims to spread it across India. The project aims to reduce road accidents. According to WHO, road accidents kill as many as 1.35 million people across the world each year. "The project ‘Intelligent Solutions for Road Safety through Technology and Engineering’ (iRASTE) at Nagpur will identify potential accident-causing scenarios while driving a vehicle and alert drivers about the same with the help of the Advance Driver Assistance System (ADAS). "The project will identify ‘grey spots’, i.e., by data analysis and mobility analysis by continuously monitoring dynamic risks on the entire road network," the Indian government said. Grey spots are locations on roads, left unaddressed could become blackspots (locations with fatal accidents). The system also conducts continuous monitoring of roads and designs engineering fixes to correct existing road blackspots for preventive maintenance and improved road infrastructure, government officials said. The iRASTE project is under the I-Hub Foundation, IIIT Hyderabad, a Technology Innovation Hub set up in the technology vertical- Data Banks and Data Services, supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). I-Hub Foundation has used techniques ranging from machine learning, computer vision and computational sensing for several other data-driven technological solutions in the mobility sector. One such solution is the India Driving Dataset (IDD), a dataset for road scene understanding in unstructured environments captured from Indian roads, which deviates from the worldwide assumptions of well-delineated infrastructure such as lanes, limited traﬃc participants, low variation in object or background appearance and strong adherence to traﬃc rules. The project consortium includes CSIR-CRRI, and Nagpur Municipal Corporation, with Mahindra and Intel as the industry partners. The Hub is working to coordinate, integrate, and amplify basic and applied research in broad data-driven technologies as well as its dissemination and translation across the country. One of the primary aims is to prepare a critical resource for the future use by researchers, startups, and industry, mainly in the areas of smart mobility, healthcare along with smart buildings. "What makes the iRASTE project even more unique is that AI and technology is being applied to create practical solutions, as a blueprint, for Indian conditions. While the initial rollout of iRASTE is in Nagpur, the eventual goal is to replicate the solution in other cities too. "Currently, talks are on with the Telangana government to adopt the technology in a fleet of buses that ply on highways. There are further plans to extend the scope of iRASTE to Goa and Gujarat also," ministry officials said. Another dataset called Open World Object Detection on Road Scenes (ORDER) has also been developed using the India Driving Dataset that could be used by autonomous navigation systems in Indian driving conditions for localization and classification of the objects in a road scene. Besides this, a Mobility Car Data Platform (MCDP) has been designed with several sensors – cameras, LIDARs, with the necessary computing for anyone to capture or process data on the car that can help researchers and start-ups in India test their automotive algorithms and approaches in navigation and research on Indian roads, the Indian ministry said. A new framework, LaneRoadNet (LRNet), with an integrated mechanism considering lane and road parameters using deep learning, has been designed to address problems of Indian roads, which have several obstacles, occluded lane markings, broken dividers, cracks, potholes, etc. that put the drivers at significant risk while driving, the government said. In this framework, a road quality score is calculated with the help of a modular scoring function. The final score helps the authorities to assess road quality and prioritize maintenance schedules of the road so as to improve the drivability. WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

Artificial Intelligence to make roads in India safer to drive