 "Nitin Gadkari")
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, has said that he will never allow driverless cars in India, as the introduction of autonomous vehicles in the country will leave "up to 8 million drivers" unemployed.
The minister made the remark while speaking to Business Today during a recent event hosted by IIM Nagpur.
"I said in the US itself that I will not allow driverless cars in India at any cost. This is because in our country, a large number of people work as drivers….driverless cars will, therefore, snatch their jobs," said Gadkari.
"Such vehicles are appropriate only for countries with small populations. However, if these come here, around 7-8 million people will lose their jobs just like that, and that would be another issue," he added.
Earlier, Gadkari has, at least twice, publicly expressed opposition to the idea of having driverless cars in the country, once in July 2017 and again in December 2019. He had cited the same reason that people working as drivers will become unemployed.
Meanwhile, at the IIM Nagpur event, Gadkari also spoke about the ongoing discussions between the Modi government and Tesla, the Elon Musk-led world's largest EV manufacturer, about the possibility of the company opening a factory in India.
"We welcome Tesla. But manufacturing in China, and selling in India, that is not possible. We are open to them manufacturing from here only," he said
