To qualify as a good self-driving car, the car should be able to do whatever a good driver can do. Let’s assess the quality of a good driver – lane driving, position itself correctly according to traffic patterns, remain alert, always on the lookout for any animals or pedestrians wandering onto the roads, and adapt to varying weather conditions. It should be able to handle unexpected obstacles, like road debris, and navigate through construction zones safely. Furthermore, it should be able to make split-second decisions in an emergency, ensuring the safety of its passengers and others on the road. Ultimately, a good self-driving car should be able to mirror a good driver.
However, even experienced drivers find it difficult to drive on Indian roads safely. Given the lack of well-defined or metalled roads, it makes it difficult to navigate by a flurry of trucks, cars, motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, autos and animals. It is no surprise that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways reports a troubling increase in road accidents and deaths every year, with over 4.5 lakh reported road accidents in 2022, averaging 53 such accidents and 19 deaths every hour in the country.
In this regard, it is notable that the incumbent Union Minister for Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Mr. Nitin Gadkari has vouched against allowing driverless vehicles, citing that it could cause unemployment for up to 80 lakh people working as drivers in India.
Apart from the potential to cause unemployment, self-driving cars have a long way to go before becoming a reality on Indian roads.
Technological Hurdles and Road Dynamics
According to the Society of Automotive Engineers’ classification, autonomous or self-driving cars have six levels, from level 0 (no automation) to level 5 (full automation). Cars utilizing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) fall into levels 1 and 2, while fully autonomous cars from levels 3-5 remain largely in development and are not commercially available.
The technology behind self-driving cars faces substantial challenges, which are exacerbated by the complexity and dynamism of Indian roads and their drivers. For their functionality, self-driving cars need high-definition maps with precise information about the road network. Creating such maps for Indian roads, which often do not have lane markings or other standard features and largely remain in perpetual construction, is a mammoth task. Apart from that, the dusty nature of our climate, and rapidly changing weather can seriously hinder any sensors that the car uses to perceive its surroundings. The chaotic and unpredictable driving behaviour of our population at large can also make it difficult for the predictive AI to learn and respond to the driving conditions on Indian roads.
The Future of Autonomous Vehicles in India
Though these technological hurdles are substantial, technical problems are generally a matter of “when they will be solved” rather than “if they will be solved.” Thus, autonomous vehicles are definitely going to be a reality someday worldwide, including in India. And they should be, given the numerous benefits they have over human drivers.
Good Self-driving cars have the potential to negate the entire factor of “human error” involved in most road accidents. If adopted widely, such cars could communicate with other similar cars on the road, improving coordination, avoiding collisions and bettering the flow of traffic. This could reduce congestion on the roads while reducing commute times and fuel consumption. Additionally, most of these self-driving cars are electric cars, which have a significant environmental benefit over their fuel-based counterparts.
Regulatory Framework for Autonomous Vehicles
For this idealistic vision to materialize, first and foremost local laws and regulations do not hinder its introduction. Concurrently, it is important that there remains a regulatory framework in place that is tailored to autonomous vehicles so that their use allows the benefits without creating any problems.
Such a regulatory framework must be able to provide answers to at least two basic questions:
- Liability and Insurance: Who will be liable in the event of an accident involving an autonomous vehicle? How should insurance policies be structured to cover the same?
- Safety and Testing: What are the minimum safety standards that autonomous vehicles must meet, and what testing protocols are required before they can operate on public roads?
While India is tackling the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning revolution along with the world, draft rules and regulations on the same (not specifically self-driving cars) are expected soon.
Hybrid Liability Model for India
The Motor Vehicles Act of 1988 does not envisage self-driving cars in any form, and thus, amendments or new legislation will be required to make the framework suitable for them.
While the answer to the second question is subject to collaboration with the stakeholders, the answer to the first can be split into two extremes. The first case, Britain, through its Automated and Electric Vehicles Act of 2018, makes the vehicle owner liable for any accident caused by the automated car. On the other hand, the German Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2017 makes it so that the liability in such cases is determined with the help of a black box device in the car, and based on the information in such “black box”, the liability could be ascribed either to the owner or the manufacturer of the car.
India, while legislating on the same, could adopt a hybrid model inspired by both extremes. Making the manufacturers liable for faults in the self-driving system will encourage the development of safer technology. Along the same lines, the owner’s responsibility should not be neglected in case an accident occurs due to unauthorized software updates or failures to update.
Outlook
Self-driving cars can bring about promising changes in India’s road transportation. They can reduce accidents and commute times. However, in their current state; they face numerous technological as well as regulatory challenges. Acknowledging that “automatic” everything is usually the future, acceptance and adoption of self-driving cars once introduced among the Indian public would also be an enigma to be solved. The main question of liability in an accident involving a self-driving car needs to be answered by the Government taking into account the various international perspectives before coming to an acceptable solution. Cautious optimism seems to be a good approach when seeing the driverless dream.
