Advanced Driver Assistance Systems or ADAS is becoming a common find on modern cars and SUVs. Its adoption has also increased sharply in the past few years. There have been many crashes after ADAS has triggered emergency braking on Indian roads, mainly because Indians generally don't maintain adequate distance between themselves and the cars ahead. Here's yet another example. Dashcam recording from a Hyundai Santro shows how ADAS of a Tata Safari got deployed near Vikravandi toll plaza in Tamil Nadu, followed by a collision involving four cars, including the Santro.
The video shared on Youtube is from a dashcam fitted in a Hyundai Santro. In the beginning we see a line of vehicles approaching Vikravandi toll plaza. This plaza sits on National Highway 132, in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district. A White Tata Safari can be seen moving in front of the Santro. It is an ADAS-equipped variant. There is an Innova Crysta moving in front of it.
Soon, we see the Safari brake all of a sudden. It is likely that the Crysta in front of it may have braked hard, without any warning, triggering the Safari’s Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) feature. The SUV comes to a complete standstill within seconds. Although the Santro wasn’t expecting this maneuver, it was able to stop safely as there was enough distance between the two vehicles. Even after coming to a full halt, there was ample gap between the Santro and the Safari.
Now began the chaos. The Santro had a Tata Punch almost tailgating it. It could not stop in time and rear-ended the Hyundai. This impact further pushed the Santro towards the Safari, making it crash into its rear.
Within seconds, a Volkswagen Polo that was closely following the Punch, failed to stop safely and crashed into it. The momentum transfer in this gave the Santro a second jolt toward the Safari’s rear.
In short the Santro took two frontal and rear impacts, despite braking safely. It took notable damage both at the front and at the rear. The Punch and Safari took relatively less damage. The Polo’s front end got badly deformed. Passenger cells of all vehicles remained intact.
Here’s where things get a bit tricky. The Safari’s AEB getting deployed, in a way, triggered the chain of crashes. But can we blame it ? The honest answer is no. The actual reason is that the Punch and Polo were not keeping safe stopping distances with the respective vehicles in front of them. If they were not tailgating, they would have been able to stop safely. In that case the Santro would have remained completely unaffected.
Indian drivers, at least some of them, need deep lectures on the importance of maintaining safe stopping distances with the vehicles in front of them, especially in the modern era, when technology like Automatic Emergency Braking are becoming increasingly common. Before we blame the calibration of ADAS suites, it should be ensured that ‘human error’ is off the ‘list of causes’ in such cases!
That said, it remains a reality that the ADAS calibration on many cars sold in India, remains extra sensitive for our road and traffic conditions. We don’t, however, intend to say that the Tata Safari is one such product. It, in fact, comes with an ADAS package that’s very India-friendly. The calibration feels tailor-made for Indian road conditions.
In short, this incident is a wakeup call for all drivers who tend to follow other vehicles too closely and highlights the importance of keeping safe stopping distances at all times.