Huge Blow To India's 'Driverless Cars' Dreams; Govt Says It Is Not Happening

While numerous automobile companies have counted thousands of miles driven by an autonomous system developed by them, India is still far away from this scenario. So much so that the highest level of autonomy seen in the country is limited to assisted cruise control seen only in high-end cars. And by the looks of things, Union Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, is in no mood to change this either.

As per a report by NDTV, the Minister, at a recent event said, ¡°For the driverless cars, I have a hesitation. We have decided not to allow driverless cars in India. I am sorry." Now it is not really clear what he means by ¡°we¡± but if the ¡®Minister for Road Transport & Highways¡¯ is stating this, you better stop dreaming about autonomous driving in India.

He has a valid concern though. He further added "Presently, there are 30 lakh people who are getting employment (through the automotive industry). And in our economy, the most important thing is how to create more employment potential as our country's population is very high."

BWV Night Vision Autonomous Technology (Reuters)

It is hard to argue with that. Autonomous driving is predicted to change the automotive and transport industries as we know them. However, the situation has not reached a critical point now. World over, the current level of autonomy achieved i.e. 4, still mandates an active driver behind the wheel. Which means none of those employed in the system can be done away with.

What¡¯s more, the prime reason of appointing autonomous driving on roads is not replacing human drivers. It is to avoid road accidents and mishaps and promote safe transport. If you were to consider this significance, autonomous driving, still in its nascent stage, has already proven itself to be safer than human drivers and by a huge margin. So embracing some levels of it for specific purposes might not be a bad idea after all.

As a matter of fact, a recent research has suggested that autonomous vehicles will also be used for better traffic management in the near future. In an experiment by the concerned researchers, a simple machine learning program called 'Flow' was able to better control the traffic on the roads in almost every traffic scenario through the use of autonomous vehicles.

The minister did shred a ray of hope though, stating, "In a country where the population is very less, it can be a good idea for them. But still, I am open minded, if anyone convinces me, I am ready to discuss this subject." So, while the country still decides whether it wants to appoint autonomous driving or not, other countries are already past the nascent stage and are actually seeing fully capable Teslas speeding down their highways in ¡®Mad Max¡¯ mode, with no requirement of a human input whatsoever.

Watch: Tesla Autopilot V9 Changing Lanes In Mad Max Mode