Imagine the scenario; it is one year since BMW entered India and the directors of the luxury car manufacturer are huddled into a meeting at the board room in the famous four-cylinder building in Munich, Germany. And the one issue dominating the discussion is why are so many of its Indian customers coming back to the dealerships with one specific complaint.
Why was this one component failing in all the BMW cars that were shipped from Germany to India?, they wondered.
After much debate, it was decided that the only solution is to replace the German-made component with the ‘Made-in-India’ part!
The board agreed that its longevity and reliability could be ensured only by this move.
This contentious part was the car’s ‘Horn’!
Honk-hungry Indian car owners and drivers were using the horn so frequently that the European-versions of the car, so sparingly used as they are in those markets, just couldn’t handle the overload. They would heat up and fail within months.
On the contrary, the India-made ones were built to handle the abuse.
Cacophony
You must have heard – Indian drivers leave their hands on the horn permanently on standby and often resort to unprovoked honking. Now, let the statistic sink in, when you consider that there are about 150-million registered vehicles out there today, that is nearly 500 times the registered vehicular population in India of 64 years ago. There are that many horns potentially in use on the roads now.
It is the favourite topic to pick on for every expat automotive CEO about how noisy Indian roads are. It seems a bit unfair from one angle – a bit like Bill Gates’ comment that he counted 32 cows on the roads while going to the Delhi airport after his first visit to India. But, the fact remains that cows on the road, and unnecessary and incessant honking by road users are two very avoidable problems while driving here. They are also in striking contrast to the well-maintained roads and disciplined drivers that are the norm in so called First World countries.
So, while our politicians and policy-makers chew on their cud, twiddle their proverbial thumbs and carefully skirt their way around these touchy issues, why don’t we suggest some alternate solutions to stop the honkers from blowing the horn unnecessarily. The road conditions aren’t going to change anytime soon, the Traffic Police is still going to be busy manning the VIP corridor and moral suasion hasn’t worked. So even as the decibel level rises steadily, in the absence of policing and fines, how else can we dis-incentivise the use of the horn.
Here is a list of three ‘Hatke’ measures:
> The big disincentives that have worked for sure globally are all financial. Amongst Indian car buyers there is one factor that sways the car buying decision – mileage. So, the car’s (or the bike’s) engine management system should be reprogrammed to include the use of the horn as one more factor that affects the car’s fuel efficiency. For example, every time the driver honks, there will be a ten per cent reduction in mileage. Use a musical horn or the reverse horn and the fall in mileage will be a more severe 20 per cent. Then, in addition to the standard “Kitna Deti Hai?” question, there will also be a “Kitna Bajaati Hai?” question that buyers will seek answers for.
> A second option could be to mandate that all car makers should rewire the vehicle’s music system so that every time the driver honks, the sound of the horn is also played out loud in the car’s speakers. The Infotainment system will take on a whole new meaning, with the car’s occupants experiencing the misery of the other road users, even while sitting inside the air-conditioned comfort of their car. And maybe they will also stop misunderstanding the tagline on FM radio every time the jingle goes – “Bajaathe Raho!”
> All of us like some kind of customisation in our cars. So, why not use the trend to personalise the steering wheel of the car to include an etched picture of a loved one on the centre panel. That way, the picture will remain right in front and so, the
driver might stop himself from punching the horn. This could, however, get a bit tricky with married couples.
