What is the Future of Self Driving Cars in India?

June 8, 2021June 8, 2021 Abhi

India is one of the most rapidly growing nations in the fields of IT and the Auto industry. Due to this very reason, despite so many hurdles, these industries tend to show tremendous growth.

One of the most talked-about projects in the world in recent years is the Automation cars. Many renowned auto companies across the globe ( like Tesla ) are working on developing a full-fledged ecosystem for such vehicles. The buzz is also quite intense in India.

But what is the future of self driving cars in India ?

Will the automation tech in cars be relevant to Indian conditions ?

Let’s have a brief discussion about the future of self driving cars in India in this article.

Table of Contents

What are self driving cars – Automation Cars?

Future of self driving cars — Self driving cars

As the name suggests, these are cars based on Artificial Intelligence and are driverless. It will be self-driven, and there won’t be a need for any drivers to commute. It will incorporate Voice and apps for providing commands.

Advantages of Self Driving Cars in India

There are several advantages of Self Driving Cars like-

1.) A safer option for traveling

Well, we all are aware of the exponential increase in road accidents in recent years. The prime reason being the negligence of drivers while driving.

Many of such drivers don’t even have driving licenses, are underage, involved in drunk and drive, etc.

A self-driving car will provide better safety because of its predetermined set of rules for driving.

Safety in self driving cars — Safety is a major factor in determining the Future of self driving cars in India

2.) No Over speeding

Overspeeding, too is one of the most significant rule violations in the country. Although it is somewhat limited in metropolitan cities, it is a headache for traffic officials to counter such nuisance in small towns and cities.

With Auto Pilot cars, this very situation can be avoided altogether.

3.) Follow traffic regulations

As said above, Traffic rules violation is enormous in India, whether on purpose or not. However, these self-driven vehicles will follow a pre-installed and defined set of regulations and rarely violate such rules.

A win-win situation for both regulators and violators ( free from fines ).

Disadvantages of Self Driven Cars in India

Automated Cars, despite so many advantages, comprise some disadvantages as well in the Indian context. They are –

1.) Unavoidable Accidents

Due to the less traffic literacy in India – pedestrians, local commuters, public transports, etc., move erratically. Since no machine can react faster than a human brain, these automatic cars, too, won’t be able to judge the situation and avoid collisions in that case.

The situation can get worse in small towns.

2.) Handling of Cars

Since the roadways in India are not that great ( NH and SH being an exception ), self-driven cars will lack decent handling.

Even in many rural areas, there are no roads- either not laid yet, or are dismantled due to natural calamities. An autopilot car will be a tough bet in such conditions where human intervention is much needed.

3.) Financial reasons

Of course, each advancement demands extra cost. The best example being the Electric cars which are not getting that required push in sales due to the difference in the cost from regular vehicles.

India being a developing nation where the consumer is price centric, self-driven cars will face the hurdle in the number of sales.

Future of Self Driving Cars in India

We went through the pros and cons of automatic cars. So, what is the Future of Self-driving Cars in India?

Sadly, self-driving cars have no future in India in the upcoming two or three decades. As discussed above, India is a very price-sensitive market, and with such features, the price of these cars would be on the higher side. So, these cars wouldn’t receive a warm welcome from Indian consumers.

The most important factor which I didn’t include intentionally in the disadvantages of self driving cars is the increase in the unemployment rate.

Well, lakhs of the Indian population are earning their livelihood through driving cabs and rented cars. These automatic cars will rob them of their income source.

India is already facing a job crisis and a massive struggle in creating new job opportunities. So, the government will never approve of any such advancements where such a vast population gets unemployed with such steps.

So, despite so many pros, I don’t think there is any future of self driving cars in India.

Conclusion

Self-driving cars / Automatic cars are a fascinating concept. It seems so intriguing thinking of a car that will have no drivers but will commute just on voice commands.

Yes, of course, it will be loaded with smart tech and AI ( Artificial Intelligence ).

Indeed, it will attract a decent crowd due to the tech involved but practically doesn’t seem relevant in developing countries like India, at least not in the near future.