Mercedes-Benz India hoping for delicensing of all radar frequencies
Mercedes-Benz has welcomed the Government of India's decision to implement stricter crash test norms for cars and making them compulsory from October 2017. The luxury carmaker is hoping that the government will delicense all radar frequencies. This will enable Mercedes-Benz cars to come equipped with advanced safety features.
During an interview with IANS, Roland Folger, managing director and CEO of Mercedes India, said that globally their cars come equipped with radar-based driver assistance systems like collision prevention assist, blind spot assist and Distronic Plus, to name a few. These safety systems are not being offered on Merc vehicles in India as the required radar frequency bands haven't been delicensed.
Last year, the Indian government delicensed frequency bands in the range of 36-38MHz, 433-434.79MHz, 302-351kHz and 76-77GHz. While welcoming this move, Mercedes-Benz had requested the Indian government for delicensing of 24GHz, 76GHz and 79GHz. Mercedes-Benz cars need two to three ranges of frequency bands for the radar-based features to function.
The Indian government had not delicensed the other two required frequencies. "We believe that the delicensing of all radar frequency bands will be a significant milestone for the Indian automotive industry," said Folger.
The Volvo XC90 T8 Excellence is the first vehicle in India to come equipped with radar-based driver assistance systems. The Indian government has delicensed the radar frequency bands requested by Volvo.