Government won't allow driverless cars on Indian roads: Nitin Gadkari

[FrodosNewPet]

Source: Times of India

Dipak K Dash | TNN | Updated: Jul 24, 2017, 09:38 PM IST

NEW DELHI: India will not allow driverless cars to ply on its roads, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday.

The minister added that focus of the government is to create more jobs to arrest unemployment. "How can we allow such vehicles when we already have huge number of unemployed people?" Gadkari asked while interacting with reporters at his residence in the national capital.

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The minister also said he has told all overseas electric vehicle+ manufacturers that his ministry won't support any relief from import duty for such vehicles coming to India. "I have told the manufacturers that they can come and manufacture here. There is no question of tax relief," he said.

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Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/auto/cars/government-wont-allow-driverless-cars-on-indian-roads-nitin-gadkari/articleshow/59741458.cms

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India will ban driverless cars in order to protect jobs

The country’s transport minister addressed the issue in a statement today.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/24/india-ban-driverless-cars-protect-jobs/#ampshare=https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/24/india-ban-driverless-cars-protect-jobs/

Mallory Locklear, @mallorylocklear | 2h ago in Transportation

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However, according to statements made by former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, India wasn't likely to get autonomous vehicles anytime soon. The haphazard roads and chaotic traffic in parts of the country make it difficult to safely introduce driverless technology onto the roadways. But Indian company Tata Elxsi has been trying to get around those issues by testing self-driving vehicles on a track designed to resemble the roads and traffic of India. Complete with pedestrians, livestock, unsignaled lane merges and lack of signage, the testing track is meant to give driverless cars as real of an experience as possible while still respecting India's ban of self-driving cars from its roads. How today's statement from Gadkari will impact Tata Elxsi's business plans isn't yet clear.

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[COLGATE4]

1. If you've ever seen the traffic in India

you'd know that they already have them - lots and lots of them!

[WoonTars]

3. No kidding!!!

They're almost all lunatics!

[COLGATE4]

9. Almost???

[diva77]

4. It would be hard to program the vehicles to navigate the "creative driving" that exists there!

[Turbineguy]

5. It's like Florida

but with skills.

[COLGATE4]

8. Or Miami without them

[phleshdef]

2. I don't trust this technology yet, on any road.

[longship]

7. Try Michigan winters with one of them some time.

On an Interstate. In a white-out. With driverless semi-trailers on the same road.

Or better yet, driving over the Grapevine in SoCal even in summer. (Fucking forget autonomous vehicles on the Grapevine in winter!) It is a scary ass drive, and it's a fucking eight lane Interstate!

Plus, most of the roads where I now live are unpaved and traverse national forest land. The farmers' tractors with their wide loads willingly scoot aside to let cars pass, along with a friendly wave, always reciprocated. Autonomous vehicles here would all end up at the bottom of Grass Lake, while we human drivers all laugh and laugh and laugh about the autonomous vehicle idiots over a few beers at the Last Chance Saloon. And afterwards we all would make it safely home on the same Grass Lake Road, winter or summer, still laughing at the autonomous vehicle carnage within the lake.

[truthisfreedom]

6. They can't stop progress.

It will come. Maybe later, but it will come to India.

[Nitram]

10. Perhaps a short-sighted. But the average Indian wouldn't be able to afford a self-driving car.

Wait until everybody else gets the bugs out and they become more affordable. I think it might be dangerous to be in a self-driving car in Indian traffic. It is insanely crowded, random, and "innovative."