A Centralized Framework for Sustaining Safety-Critical Vehicle Systems Through Periodic Servicing

As vehicles are becoming more complex, maintaining the effectiveness of safety critical systems like adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, electronic breaking and airbag deployment extends far beyond the initial design and manufacturing. In the automotive industry these safety systems must perform reliably over the years under varying environmental conditions. This paper examines the critical role of periodic maintenance in sustaining the long-term safety and functional integrity of these systems throughout the lifecycle. As per the latest data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), in 2022, India reported a total of 4.61 lakh road accidents, resulting in 1.68 lakh fatalities and 4.43 lakh injuries. The number of fatalities could have been reduced by the intervention of periodic services and monitoring the health of safety critical systems. While periodic maintenance has contributed to long term safety of the vehicles, there are a lot of vehicles on the road which are not serviced regularly. This paper aims to fill this critical gap by proposing a system where the government agencies actively collect and monitor vehicle maintenance data and diagnostics data ensuring that all vehicles on the road undergo mandatory periodic servicing to uphold the integrity of safety-critical systems. This paper concludes by proposing a centralized framework for data sharing and proactive monitoring to ensure the sustained performance of safety-critical systems—ultimately reducing preventable road fatalities and improving overall vehicular safety across India. Keywords: Safety-critical systems, Periodic maintenance, Predictive maintenance, Vehicle diagnostics, Data monitoring.