Will driverless cars ply on Indian roads soon?

A case-by-case trial run of self-driving cars may start soon

India could soon have driverless cars plying on its roads as speculations are rife that proposed amendments to the motor vehicles law would facilitate trial runs of automated vehicles.

Quoting a top ministry official, an Economic Times report said, "The government will allow testing of these vehicles on a case-by-case basis once the law is in place."
     

The policy measure is expected to benefit Indian carmakers who can join the global race of developing self-driving cars. 

Globally, carmakers and technology companies including Tesla Motors, China's Baidu, Google, Uber, Mercedes, Ford and General Motors are working on driverless cars and testing them on city roads across the world.

Cab aggregator Uber has been collaborating with Swedish automaker Volvo to test driverless cars-Volvo XC90s- in Pittsburgh since September. However, Uber's bid to test automated cars on California's roads failed after the registration of 16 autonomous vehicles was revoked as the company had refused to apply for appropriate permits. 

Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016, was introduced in the Parliament in August last year and is supposed to facilitate the entire process.

"Once cleared, any innovation in transport sector such as semi-autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles, both passenger and commercial, could be tested in India," the official told ET. 

At present, the Bill has been referred to a parliamentary standing committee. However, in order to test automated cars on Indian roads, interested parties need to get the prior approval of the transport department of the union roads ministry.