The DRM Consortium, with the support of its members Inntot Technologies, OptM Solutions, and Fraunhofer IIS, participated as the Platinum Partner at the SAFAR 2nd Summit for Automotive Future Advancement in Road Safety (SAFAR), held during the Sustainable Mobility Week organized by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).
The summit was inaugurated by senior government leadership and industry stakeholders, underscoring India’s commitment to safer roads, technology-driven mobility solutions, and domestic innovation aligned with the national development agenda. As highlighted by SIAM, the event brought together policymakers, OEMs, technology providers, and safety experts to accelerate collaborative action in advancing road safety and sustainable mobility.
DRM Digital Radio’s Role in Road Safety – The Digital Successor to AM/FM Radio
During the Technical Session on “Innovation in Vehicular Safety Technology,” Alexander Zink of Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and Vice-Chair of the global and not-for-profit DRM Consortium, on behalf of the DRM Consortium, delivered the presentation titled “DRM Digital Radio’s Role in Road Safety – The Digital Successor to AM/FM Radio with EWF – Emergency Warning Functionality”.
The session highlighted:
- DRM’s capabilities for real-time traffic and travel information dissemination
- Integration of the DRM digital radio network with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) infrastructure
- DRM’s Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF) enabling automatic wake-up or switch-over to the emergency announcement, geo-targeted alerts, and multilingual and detailed emergency information and instructions through DRM’s Journaline text component.
All this can make India’s car fleet become an integral part of the national emergency alert infrastructure through DRM-EWF.
DRM is the natural digital successor standard for classic analogue AM and FM radio services, providing spectrum-efficient and highly resilient broadcast infrastructure that complements connected vehicle ecosystems. Unlike IP-dependent systems, DRM ensures simultaneous, unlimited reach – particularly critical during disasters or mobile network congestion or even outages – thereby strengthening national emergency communication infrastructure.
Advancing Road Safety Through Make in India
DRM is the open and ITU-R endorsed digital radio standard developed by the radio industry for the radio industry for worldwide adoption – with all technology components published and fully accessible to every manufacturer wishing to develop their own solutions
The DRM automotive ecosystem strongly aligns with the Government of India’s Make in India initiative by enabling:
- Localization of receiver modules and automotive radio units
- Domestic software development for Software Defined Radio (SDR) platforms
- Integration into Indian-manufactured vehicles
- Creation of high-value R&D and engineering jobs
With India being one of the largest automotive markets globally, DRM presents an opportunity to build a locally manufactured, globally exportable digital radio solution embedded in vehicles produced in India.
The collaboration between Indian technology companies and global research institutions supports technology transfer, indigenous capability building, and scalable deployment models that strengthen India’s technological sovereignty in critical communication infrastructure.
Strengthening India’s Road Safety and Public Alerting Ecosystem
As India accelerates efforts to reduce road fatalities and enhance disaster preparedness, DRM provides:
- Nationwide broadcast coverage without dependency on telecom networks
- Reliable emergency alerting during natural disasters or large-scale incidents
- Automatic activation of emergency warnings in vehicles
- Geo-targeted and multilingual alert delivery with audio and Journaline text components
- Cost-effective scalability across vehicle segments
Through its participation at SAFAR, the DRM Consortium reaffirmed its collective commitment, through its many member organizations and industry partners from the broadcast as well as automotive industry, to supporting the integration of resilient digital broadcast infrastructure including the automotive ecosystem to enable resilient, future-ready information, entertainment and alert infrastructure aligned with India’s road safety goals and Make in India directive.
Industry Collaboration Driving Automotive Innovation
Inntot Technologies
Inntot Technologies is a leading Indian provider of Software Defined Radio (SDR) solutions and advanced automotive radio platforms. Inntot’s Software Defined Radio based innovations in DRM Receivers, featured in more than 2 million Indian cars, support a cost-effective and scalable transition from analog to digital broadcasting. Inntot advocates extending DRM into India’s FM band as a unified digital radio standard, enabling software-upgradable receivers, fostering technology sovereignty and smoothing the digital migration path for broadcasters and listeners alike. https://www.inntot.com/
OptM Solutions
OptM Solutions is a Bengaluru-based, product-first, one-stop automotive electronics company offering products, solutions, and services for both EV and ICE platforms. OptM is a trusted partner for multiple OEMs and Tier-1s across two-wheelers, three-wheelers, passenger vehicles, and commercial vehicles, delivering Made-in-India electronics with scalable manufacturing through a strong ecosystem of EMS and strategic partners. Its engineering strength contributes to the localization and integration of digital broadcast technologies in Indian automotive platforms. https://optmsol.com/
Fraunhofer IIS
Fraunhofer IIS is the largest institute within the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and a global leader in microelectronic and information technology system solutions. The Audio and Media Technologies (AME) division has shaped globally deployed audio standards for over 30 years, including mp3 and AAC.
As a solution contributor to automotive Tier-1s and OEMs around the globe, Fraunhofer IIS brings end-to-end broadcast ecosystem expertise – covering encoding, transmission systems, receiver technologies, and large-scale rollout planning – supporting India’s adoption of advanced digital broadcasting systems through collaboration and knowledge exchange. www.iis.fraunhofer.de/drm
More information on cars in India with DRM receivers:
https://www.drm.org/the-drm-success-story-of-indian-automotive-industry13-2-million-cars-on-the-indian-roads/
