In order to improve safety standards of its cars, Toyota India is planning to offer anti-lock braking system (ABS) as a standard feature across models. Earlier, the company mandated airbags across its lineup. After this, Toyota will be the first-in-industry to offer ABS as standard safety equipment. The officials haven’t proclaimed a timeline, but it is likely to happen by 2016. Besides this, the Japanese automaker is also planning to test all its models with Humanoid (a.k.a. THUMS – Total Human Model for Safety).
Moreover, Toyota might perform crash tests, similar to NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme),on its locally manufactured products, The company will work on pedestrian safety as well. All these moves will indeed make Toyota cars a lot safer than rivals.
Carmakers like Toyota and Volkswagen have already mandated airbags across their product range, though, offering ABS as a standard feature will be a first in the industry. All these efforts from manufacturers will certainly help reduce the road accidents in India. And with the arrival of BNVSAP (Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Program), the in-car safety will significantly improve in India. A committee has been formed to draft it, which might mandate frontal and side impact crash testing at 56kmph, similar to the European car safety policies. It is expected to be imposed by April, 2017.
