Wanted: Local dummies to replace imports in auto crash tests

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New Delhi: India's premier automobile testing agency, the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), plans to manufacture soft target dummies domestically, as imported models don't yield accurate results in crash tests because they are not tailored to Indian body standards, according to two people aware of the development and the agency's FY26 annual report.

Currently, India imports these crash dummies from countries including China, Japan, and Germany. Imports of ‘other measuring and checking instruments, applications and machines’, of which these dummies are a part, totalled $1.3 billion in FY26, 11% higher than in FY25, according to commerce ministry data.

“We are definitely localizing soft target dummies. And these are dummies we use for ADAS testing,” said the first of the two persons cited earlier, both speaking on condition of anonymity.

ADAS, or advanced driver assistance systems, are classified into six levels of driving automation, from Level 0 (no automation) to Level 5 (full driving automation). India currently permits up to Level 2 ADAS, which can control steering and acceleration or braking under certain conditions but require drivers to remain attentive and monitor the road at all times.

This indigenization push assumes importance as India’s vehicle crash tests, under a proposed Bharat National Car Accreditation Program 2.0, are set to become tougher starting October 2027.

Soft target dummies are human-shaped targets used to test advanced safety systems, such as automatic emergency braking and pedestrian detection, by simulating vulnerable road users in controlled conditions.

"ARAI is currently developing indigenous soft target dummies for ADAS testing as part of its R&D initiative. These dummies are currently imported, primarily from European countries. Global dummies reflect global conditions and standard testing scenarios. However, India-specific traffic objects and road scenarios are a key requirement category for developing India-specific solutions," said Ujjwala Karle, senior deputy director and head of department – technology group and DTL (digital twin laboratory) at ARAI, in an email response to Mint's query.

ADAS in India needs to be calibrated, tuned and developed to address India-specific use cases and operating conditions, said Karle. "These scenarios include various vehicle classes such as three-wheelers and small commercial vehicles; animals such as cows and dogs; and vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as moped riders, pedestrians and pedestrians with children each having distinct physical characteristics, movement patterns and interaction behaviour on Indian roads," she said.

Queries emailed to the ministries of road transport and highways, heavy industries, and commerce and industry, as well as to the embassies of China, Germany, and Japan on 19 October remained unanswered.

The proposed indigenization of crash-test dummies comes as India, the world’s third-largest automobile market by sales, expands its vehicle-testing capacity. The country has four nodal automotive testing agencies: ARAI, the International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT), the Global Automotive Research Centre (GARC) and National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX).

This comes in the backdrop of India recording 487,705 accidents and 177,177 fatalities due to road mishaps in 2024, according to latest publicly available data from the National Crime Records Bureau.

These crash tests involving soft dummies will help assess how effectively vehicles detect pedestrians and other vulnerable road users and how well their safety systems respond to potential collisions, enabling improvements in crash prevention and road safety.

ARAI’s FY26 annual report, published in September, also said the agency was focusing on making these dummies locally to reduce imports.

“The anthropometry of soft target dummies is a key factor in this,” said the second person.

Anthropometry means the systematic measurement of the size, shape, proportions, and physical composition of the human body.

“The localization of soft targets for on-track verification and validation of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) is being undertaken as an internal project at ARAI to address the limitations associated with imported testing dummies. Since dummies used for ADAS testing in India are imported, they lack representation of Indian anthropometry, which in turn affects accuracy of test replication for local conditions,” the ARAI FY26 annual report said.

“To bridge this gap, this project focuses on developing indigenous soft target dummies tailored to Indian road environment and demographic characteristics. This initiative encompasses localization of appropriate foam materials, detailed anthropometric studies and design & molding of both external form and internal structures of the dummies,” the report added.

Auto sector experts say that there is a difference between dummies used in crash testing and those used in ADAS testing. “Dummies used in ADAS testing are made to enter the test track akin to pedestrians on the road to test the spacial awareness and response of the ADAS in the vehicle. These also include dummies of animals and typical vehicles on Indian roads e.g. rickshaws, all of which are used to tune the ADAS system," said Ashim Sharma, Senior Partner and Business Unit Head at Nomura Research Institute (NRI) Consulting and Solutions, India. "Crash test dummies, however, are placed inside a vehicle, which is then crashed to check safety of those inside the vehicle. Crash tests require more resources and can only be performed after lots of preparation. ADAS testing using dummies, however, can be done with fewer resources and multiple times in a day.”

Countries such as China, which have more advanced ADAS, and see more vehicle models launched each year, may have developed a domestic ecosystem for manufacturing localized…