The whole world is talking about how driverless cars are going to change the transportation industry and make life better for people. A friend of mine who visited India recently said that it could work anywhere in the world but not in India because of the chaotic traffic conditions. Do you agree?
I agree that traffic is quite chaotic in India but if there is a will there will be a way. The government can enforce rules and make special roads and zones for driverless cars. A new concept can be made to work if it is popular among the people.
Probably not at the moment. The main reason for them to not work in India is the fact they scan roads and paths and lines and GPS. None of these are perfect in India. Roads need to be more strictly monitored. These cars will not make out lanes as there are no lanes in some parts of the country. But there are chances if some really good Car maker would design something precisely for Indian roads. Here I see a chance that they might actually bring them to India. But India Specific.
I never knew that Sharath, thanks for sharing the info. I think India would be a great market for driverless cars if they can fix the logistical side of it, as it would take the emotion out of driving.
This problem will be specific to all developing and underdeveloped countries, not just India. Driverless cars have still been untested in heavy traffic where both human drivers and driverless cars are present, the kind of which we see in countries with large populations. But they can be used in certain places where the route is fixed like wildlife park tours or at airports to reach the flight from the terminal.
I'd say not in the near future, unless India created new cities where no other motorized or non-motorized means of transport would be allowed except the said driver-less cars. Then there would still be the problem of human, and the occasional animal, traffic. This is a far fetched idea for an Indian city like Delhi.
Right now, driverless cars probably wouldn't work yet in India. It won't even work for my country as well since it has horrible traffic in here too. Aside from that, not all roads in here are paved already. I imagine the same for India especially for provinces and other places out of the main cities. Maybe in the future, car companies can specifically design a car for India that can drive itself. I think that's the main point, the driverless cars need to be personalised for every country that will be using it. After all, we all have different roads, traffics, needs and cases. So one car won't certainly fit all countries in that sense.
I cannot wait for them to take off for the entire world. They would be such an improvement for India, but of course would represent a large investment. You have to consider that even though self-driving cars might start to come standard in other Western nations, it will be a while for India. They rely on very budget type cars. Many are even run on compressed air instead of gas, or use liquid gas like a stove. Rich people will have them, but it will be a while longer before they trickle down to others. Hopefully, in that amount of time, they will have improved their roads, which is an even greater need to alleviate traffic.
The investment required to make driverless cars a reality is expensive and needs to be very thorough in order to make the system as safe as possible, it requires sensors in the roads so that the car knows where it is, a GPS is not sensitive enough for the job. It'll be some time before it's even used on a large scale in even the United States so I would think that India is going to have to wait a while longer before the technology is implemented there.
It hasn't worked in any other country yet so I don't see how it can work in India with all that traffic. If anyone's starting driverless cars I think those companies should start in less traffic-saturated countries like Denmark or Ireland where cars are few and roads are wide and free. India should be considered in the future when we have perfected the technology.
