livingdead
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I dont think we should match european/american safety standard... we should not be overzealous with our attitude towards safety and kill the nascent export industry.In the US market - where customer is king, the Govt. enforces ongoing CAFE fuel efficiency standards via penalties *and* safety standards via airbag requirements - at the SAME time. The more competitive a market is the thinner the margin for car-makers. Nowadays almost all new corolla size models (Nissan Sunny/Sentra, Mazda 3, Ford Escort, Chevy Cruze/Daewoo Lacetti) comes with the following safety features almost as standard in US market (because it is cheaper to fit these electronics at the outset than not).
1. Adaptive cruise control
2. Lane departure and Blind-spot occupancy warning
3. Anti-collision braking
Not to mention advanced voice activated GPS, phone commands and even finding suitable restaurants nearby.
In Brazil and India lawmakers are in the pocket of automakers hence the lax safety standards....and negligible features. These guys are minting money in India.
Indians should give preferential treatment to their own automakers (Tata. Mahindra) to compete on a more level playing field in their home turf. I'm surprised what Indian politicians gain by giving advantage to Japanese and Korean auto companies.
This is definitely not the case in China, although Chinese cars don't have a large export market, relative to India's.
I dont have the data to prove but most deaths on road in india is definitely not of car drivers, they could be pedestrians, autowallah, bikers as @Anubis suspected. Most of indian cars are for city driving, we dont drive between cities, we use trains. (the roads are not that good, and its dangerous).
Car is the safest place to be if you are on indian road.
As to preferential treatment to indian car makers, I am not sure it will be legal as per international law. We encouraged/invited automakers from other countries to set shop, manufacture cars in India, and they became so successful they even are exporting. Why will we kill our success story by bringing protectionism? There is no politician-businessmen nexus/cabal that operates, its just that customer expectation is lower than european/US standard and they match our low expectation. They have no reason to give extra safety features(standard everywhere) in a price sensitive market when consumer does not appreciate it.
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