What would self-driving cars do in India?
I am pretty excited about self-driving cars becoming a reality soon. The automobile sector is ripe for disruption and I would be glad if Apple decides to make a car. However, many people have mentioned to me that all this seems exciting for countries with good road infrastructure and traffic but what about India? How is this interesting for us?
I agree that driverless cars on roads will not be a common sight in India in the near future but short of completely automated driving experience on the roads, there are many things that will find practical application even in India.
- The most common (already a feature in certain cars, though not totally automatic) - automated parking. This is often the most painful last mile activity. An driverless car will not mind making a zillion back and forth to park in the tightest spot.
- Think beyond parallel parking - imagine that your valet parking at hotels disappears and the car is simply given the GPS location of the parking bay available. Or imagine last mile parking in a multi-level car park (say in a mall) will be an excellent feature saving countless man-hours and frustration. Once you are done, you could just summon your car using your smart phone and pay automatically. Say bye bye to exit queues in mall parkings. A lot of the valet jobs will disappear.
- As a safety feature where the automated system will take over from the driver if needed. A large number of accidents happen with the driver falling asleep on wheels and those can be reduced to minimal.
Apart from the above there are many other scenarios of usage inside closed campuses, industrial vehicles, golf carts etc.
Can't wait for this to become a reality. What kind of apps will we make for these smart vehicles?
I sold my car in 2012. Might get one if it has part auto drive, auto park and summon. Like a uber without the fuss and Kannada-Hinglish struggle to explain :-) Though sometimes humans are more warm & useful than a puter can be.
India could be a challenging play ground for these autonomous vehicles as they will learn a lot how to keep moving where people do not follow traffic rules. A Green in India does't ensure that you can move and cross the signal. One more challenge will be pedestrians and street vendors. It can be a boon during Marriage season as you can get drunk and still reach home without getting fined from a cop for drunk driving.
Interesting and thought provoking.
Good one Saurabh ...