The DRM Consortium says it highlighted the Emergency Warning Functionality of its digital radio standard on Feb. 17 during the 2nd Summit for Automotive Future Advancement in Road Safety, known as SAFAR. The event, held in New Delhi as part of SIAM Sustainable Mobility Week 2026, Feb. 16–19, was organized by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, India’s automotive industry body.
In DRM’s presentation, Alexander Zink of Fraunhofer IIS, vice chair of the DRM Consortium, outlined the organization’s view of the role of DRM digital radio in supporting road safety and public alerting. He explained how its Emergency Warning Functionality is designed to enable automatic switching from regular programming to emergency announcements, including geo-targeted and multilingual alerts. He added that the system can integrate with India’s Common Alerting Protocol infrastructure, overseen by the National Disaster Management Authority, enabling alerts to be delivered even when mobile networks are unavailable. In the presentation, DRM explained how this capability could allow vehicles equipped with DRM receivers to form part of India’s national emergency infrastructure.
Furthermore, the presentation pointed out that DRM’s automotive ecosystem aligns with the Government of India’s Make in India initiative by supporting local manufacturing of receiver modules and radio units, domestic software development for software-defined radio platforms and integration into Indian-built vehicles.
DRM describes its standard as a digital successor to AM and FM radio that operates without reliance on internet connectivity, positioning it as complementary to connected vehicle systems.
The consortium says its participation at SAFAR was intended to demonstrate how broadcast-based alerting technologies can contribute to road safety and national resilience through integration with the automotive sector.
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