Safety-related advanced driver assistance systems or ADAS technology is increasingly gaining momentum in India. Leading passenger vehicle manufacturers such as Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai Motor India as well as MG Motor India are now offering some of these solutions in some of their popular models on sale in the market.

While the Mahindra XUV700 SUV gets a raft of radar- and camera-based ADAS features such as lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, and blind-spot detection, the recently-launched sixth-generation Hyundai Verna also gets ADAS features as one of its key USPs. According to Frank Petznick, Head, ADAS Business Unit, Continental, “ADAS features are increasingly becoming a trend in the Indian market, and are likely to become more mainstream over the next three years.”

According to Petznick, ADAS functions such as blind-spot detection, cross-traffic alerts and autonomous emergency braking (AEB), which are also part of certain NCAP criteria, are likely to become mainstream. However, it is up to an OEM to decide whether it wants to offer such features across its car lines, or limit them to certain products.

Continental, which globally supplies ADAS technology to its OEM customers, is witnessing demand from the Indian market for its modular solutions, which could lower OEM costs by implementing a core technology across multiple platforms, and leveraging economies of scale.

“We aim to make a solution which might not be customised to the last end for an OEM, but is easier to adapt to multiple car lines, and emerges to be cost effective. This is what we need to target for India, and we are trying to bring these functions in a cost-effective application mode in India,” Petznick told Autocar Professional.

Tata Motors’ recently launched 'Dark' range of the Nexon, Harrier and Safari comes equipped with 10 new ADAS features.  

Developed-in-India ADAS for Indian OEMs

The Bengaluru-based Continental Technology Centre India, which is the German technology major’s R&D centre in the country, is at present developing such ADAS solutions for the Indian market, and more specifically, for Indian-headquartered OEMs.

“Our Indian team, which is working on global autonomous driving technology projects, is developing modular ADAS solutions that are easy to adapt to multiple vehicle platforms. We are developing these solutions for Indian-headquartered OEMs, and some of their products have targeted SOPs in the next two years. Therefore, our ADAS technology can be expected on the Indian roads by 2025. We are also in discussions on future projects with other OEMs in the country,” he said.

Petznick added that the Continental Technology Centre India has been working on global ADAS projects for several years, and has developed strong competency in dealing with camera modules, radars, as well as control units. “A group of such experienced engineers is now leveraging their years of knowledge to specifically develop ADAS products adapted to the Indian market,” he pointed out.

Local hardware manufacturing not on the horizon

While it globally produces the hardware – small radar sensors – in millions of units that allows for low per-piece pricing, the market for ADAS in India is still at a very nascent stage and does not demand local manufacturing of these components.

“The market for ADAS technology in India is just picking up and it is not commercially attractive to locally produce these systems. However, if there is higher volume in the future, we would consider localising production of these systems in the country,” said Petznick.

“Having said that, the utmost value-add that we could offer our customers is a capable R&D team, that is working on adapting the technology for the Indian road environment that has unique scenarios, and helping OEMs make the right choice in terms of implementing the right solutions for them,” he signed off.

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