No green light for autonomous cars in India: Nitin Gadkari

Autonomous or driverless cars, which are seeing considerable traction in developed markets just ran into a roadblock in India. 

Nitin Gadkari, minister for road transport and highways and an ardent proponent of electric vehicles, is reported to have said that autonomous or driverless cars will not be allowed in the country because the government will not go ahead with any plan to promote any technology that comes at the cost of jobs.

“No driverless cars will be allowed in India. The government is not going to promote any technology or policy that will make people jobless,” said Gadkari.

According to the transport minister, the country has a shortage of around 2.2 million drivers and that that driving skills can provide employment to around five million people. “Cab aggregators like Ola and Uber are making money by using our driving skills. If cab aggregators think they can make more money by introducing technology like driverless cars and render people unemployed, the government is not going to allow it,” he said.

Autonomous driving needs infrastructural support
While the government may be mulling disallowing autonomous driving technology, it remains to be seen if driverless cars can run in India in the near future. Most manufacturers like Renault and Google (also working on driverless tech) have ruled out these cars running on our roads anytime soon. Autonomous driving requires proper infrastructure like lane markings and signage, among other key facilities, something which is below par even in urban India.

The statement is also ironic considering autonomous cars have the potential to drastically reduce the number of road accidents and fatalities on India’s roads. Reports by the Indian government in 2016 revealed that at least 410 people lose their lives to road accidents every day. Most incidents are due to driver error, drunk driving, jumping traffic lights, sudden lane changes and more. The introduction of driverless cars could help the government achieve its stated target of reducing fatalities by 50 percent in the next three years.

Meanwhile, Indian component and technology suppliers are making considerable advances on the autonomous technology front. Recently, Tata Elxsi announced the licensing of its advanced autonomous vehicle middleware platform ‘Autonomai’ to one of the world’s top five automotive OEMs for its driverless car R&D purposes.  

Also read: Autonomous parking becomes a reality in Germany