Advanced Safety Features in New Cars to Be Mandatory from 2027

Nov 24. 2025 - The Central Government is preparing to make new safety features mandatory in new cars as part of efforts to reduce road accidents. For this, the criteria for star ratings — which determine a vehicle’s safety level and accident risk — are being revised. The revised criteria will include alerts for driver drowsiness, warnings when a pedestrian or obstacle appears in front of the vehicle and essential post-accident assistance features.

The Ministry of Road Transport has included these updated norms in the draft of New Car Assessment Programme-2 (NCAP-2) and has invited suggestions from the public and stakeholders until December 20. Compared to the current star-rating parameters, the new NCAP-2 protocols are stricter and aligned with international standards such as Euro, Global and ASEAN NCAP.

The updated protocol is proposed to come into effect by the end of 2027. Under these changes, vehicle safety assessment will not be restricted to crash-test performance alone but will follow a 360-degree approach to safety.

Five Types of Crash Tests

As per the proposed criteria, cars will undergo five types of crash tests instead of the current two, making the achievement of a 5-star rating significantly tougher. Under the new proposals, vehicles will face five crash-impact evaluations apart from existing frontal and rear impact. These will be full-width frontal impact, moving vehicle impact and oblique pole impact

Post-Accident Assistance Measures to be Evaluated

• Measures to reduce fire and electrical hazards
• Systems for easier and safer passenger evacuation
• Automatic emergency call functionality

New Mandatory Safety Features

• Pedestrian alert
• Automatic emergency braking
• Drowsiness / driver distraction alert
• Blind-spot and lane-keeping alert
• Hill-hold alert
• Side airbags
• Stability control
• Seat belt alert

New Safety Rating Weightage

• 55% — Crash protection measures
• 10% — Safe driving indicators
• 10% — Crash-avoidance technologies
• 5% — Post-accident rescue support
• 20% — Measures to protect pedestrians and two-wheeler riders

Focus on Pedestrian/Two-Wheeler Safety

To minimise injuries to vulnerable road users, pedestrian and two-wheeler safety measures will now be part of the star-rating criteria. For this, bumpers, bonnets and windshields will be re-designed to reduce impact severity and injury in the event of an accident.