India eases rules for self-driving technology in push to reduce road accidents

India has scrapped the licensing requirements for radio spectrum used by the crash avoidance and self-driving technology in cars. The Indian government has removed a commercial barrier for automakers, making the roads easier for the self-driving technology in the country, with an aim to make the roads in India safer. India is known for its notorious number of road accidents and deaths due to those. On India's crowded roads, drivers often face hazards ranging from cattle to pedestrians, while lane discipline and speed limits are widely flouted and weakly enforced.

In 2025 alone, more than 1.6 lakh lives were lost and 4.5 lakh road accidents. This marked a 4.3% spike in the number of road accidents recorded in 2024. India is among the countries with the highest number of road accidents and related fatalities worldwide. While the government has been taking various measures to make the roads safer for road users and vehicles, the latest move comes as one of them.

What's the move?

In notices last week, the Indian government waived licence requirements for radar sensors in the 77 GHz to 81 GHz frequency band, allowing the companies to use the spectrum without separate allocation by authorities. There was a separate notice doing the same for systems in the 5.9 GHz band, which enable the vehicles to communicate with each other and the roadside infrastructure.

Why is this move important?

The move by the Indian government aligns India with the standards used in the US and in the European Union, allowing the car manufacturers to deploy standardised, off-the-shelf hardware rather than build costlier local versions, lowering costs and speeding adoption. This means self-driving technology will be easier to adopt in the Indian market by the automakers.

With these licensing requirements scrapped, the luxury car manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which already offer radar-based driver assistance in the global market, can roll out the same systems in India.

On the other hand, domestic automobile brands like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, and Mahindra could more easily introduce advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), pushing premium safety features into even the cheaper models, which will enhance the safety quotient of those models. Automotive parts and technology manufacturers like Bosch and Continental, as well as chipmaker Qualcomm, also stand to benefit from this move.

How radars, sensors work in automotive safety systems?

The radar sensors in cars and vehicles help gauge safe distances and enable features such as emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and blind-spot warnings, forming a foundation for driverless or autonomous driving. Further, these technologies enable the vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication systems to warn drivers of hazards beyond their line of sight, such as a car braking around a blind curve or an approaching ambulance.

A 2023 government panel said that most traffic problems occur in such situations. It said that most sensors do not work well in these scenarios, and V2X fills the gap. The panel also recommended adding V2X to India's voluntary Bharat NCAP (BNCAP) safety ratings, which assess crash performance rather than mandate specific features.

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