For India, the decision to disallow driverless cars will be a historical blunder
India cannot afford to miss out on the opportunity to embrace driverless car revolution, and should start working towards this goal without wasting time
The other day, India’s Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that his government would not allow driverless cars on the streets as it would take jobs away from millions of drivers. Speaking at an event in Delhi, Gadkari said: “We won’t allow driverless cars in India. I am very clear on this. We won’t allow any technology that takes away jobs. In a country where you have unemployment, you can’t have a technology that ends up taking people’s jobs.”
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the autonomous cars, and most importantly before performing an autopsy of the minister’s impromptu statements, let’s turn the clock back to the 1980s when India was still a closed market.
After Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi rose to power in 1984, computerisation became one of his most ambitious projects, which he believed would create a digital revolution. As part of the plan, he liberalised the production and import of computers and other electronics. His government was planning to computerise some of the key industries, including banking, but what happened was something India wants to forget forever.
The Left parties, along with a few trade unions, opposed computerisation, as they feared it would rob people of jobs. They were hell-bent on their demand that computerisation be withdrawn.
Unable to break the gridlock with the agitating side, the government yielded to their demand, and shelved the project. And it took another decade or so for it to be reintroduced again.
The adverse impact of the then anti-computerisation protest was humongous. India lost a huge opportunity to sow the seeds of digitalisation, which could have led to a digital revolution if implemented right. But as a result of the massive political movement against computerisation, the country had to sulk for ten years, a long period in history which could otherwise have been used to its advantage. By the time India reintroduced computerisation, its neighbours, including China, had taken a huge leap forward.
After almost three decades, the Left regretted the agitation, saying it was foolish on their part to say no to computerisation then. But it was too late.
Back to present, India is now the second fastest-growing economy in the world after China. China, which embraced digitalisation back in the 80s, is now the world’s most powerful country. Digitalisation helped it take a huge leap forward, and it now has one of the best infrastructure, public transport systems, and a huge internet economies. Most of its people are hooked to internet and it has a fledgling startup ecosystem.
Now, look at India where it stands. While the middle-class is growing, the bottom of the pyramid is still suffering. The rate at which unemployment grows is a matter of concern, the infrastructure is rickety, public transportation is a mess, and the quality of education is poor. The youth population is angry.
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But we are still in a state of denial. At a time when our neighbours are roaring ahead, we are still cringing.
Why India needs driverless cars
Some statistics:
1,46,133 people were killed in road accidents in India in 2015, a 4.6 per cent rise over 2014.
Over 400 people were killed in road accidents every day in 2015, government data reveals.
16 children die on Indian roads daily.
5 lives end on Delhi’s roads everyday.
There is one death every four minutes due to a road accident in India.
Drunken driving is one of the leading causes of road fatalities.
One serious road accident in the country occurs every minute and 16 die on Indian roads every hour.
India is notorious for road accidents. Despite all kinds of initiatives and awareness programmes, the number of deaths happening on Indian streets is still on the rise. Going by the sheer number of vehicles being registered every day, this number is not going to go down anytime in the near future.
Can driverless cars put a check to this? Studies suggest so!
As per a McKinsey & Company study in 2015, simply by taking human emotions and errors out of the equation, we could reduce deaths on the road by 90 per cent. It means autonomous vehicles can save lives. “By mid-century, the penetration of AVs (autonomous vehicles) and other ADAs (advanced driver-assistance system) could ultimately cause vehicle crashes in the US to fall from second to ninth place in terms of their lethality ranking among accident types,” the report said.
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As per this report, driverless cars can do even more than just save lives. The report estimates that they’ll free up as much as 50 minutes per day for users, which adds up to a global figure of 1 billion free hours every single day. It will also reduce parking worries, with the report estimating that driverless cars will reduce the need for parking spaces in the US by more than 5.7 billion square metres.
Another key advantage is the significant cut in greenhouse gas pollution. This way autonomous vehicles can help save the environment.
So the kind of impact that driverless vehicles could make on the Indian roads and its economy is humongous. True, it can probably cause significant job losses in the initial years. But the long-term benefits are enormous. No country can turn a blind eye towards technological innovations. Singapore, India’s richer rival, has already started piloting autonomous vehicles on its streets.
We feel that the Indian government should start thinking and working towards the larger goal of introducing driverless vehicles on the Indian roads without wasting much time. Or else, India will lose the opportunity to be at the forefront of a new revolution.
Else, it will be another historical blunder, and the youth will never forgive you for this missed opportunity.
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