Driverless Tesla: Can These EVs Be Trusted On Indian Roads? Here's What We Think
As Elon Musk's vision of giving driverless cars to the world is taking shape, a critical question remains answered: Can this features ever succeed in India? Let's Find Out.
Amid the time when technology is evolving in the EV segment, the top manufacturer started turning the future into reality. They begin offering the features that no one predicted a few years back, and the most controversial yet talked-about one is Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD).
What Are Driverless EVs?
First things first, let's have an overview of the autonomous driving packages. Currently, Tesla offers two major autonomous driving setups: Autopilot, which provides features like lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control, and the other one is Full Self-Driving (FSD). The latter allows the vehicle to do city street navigation by itself, automatic lane changes, traffic signal recognition, and even self-parking.
It works due to a multiple-camera setup inside the vehicle and relies on ultrasonic sensors to make it work without human intervention.
The above-mentioned elements are called edge cases, scenarios that AI has never encountered and struggles to interpret correctly.
Technical Barriers
Sensor Confusion: As we mentioned above, Tesla's models rely heavily on cameras, with no LiDAR. If the technology is brought to India, the poor lighting, chaotic movement, and dust will make it hard for the feature to work properly, and might end up making the wrong decision during the self-driving.
Map Reliability: FSD uses high-definition mapping for some functions. In India, maps are often outdated or incomplete, and GPS signals can be unreliable in super crowded cities.
Infrastructure Gap: The country does not have a proper lane marking system, road signs, and has faded zebra crossings in most of the major cities. These elements can contribute to failing the feature massively.
Regulatory Hurdles: Even if we want fully driverless cars, Indian automotive laws do not permit full autonomous vehicles on public roads due to unpredictable traffic and unwanted scenarios.
Could It Still Handle?
It is worth mentioning that the unpredictability of Indian roads could be a goldmine for Tesla to make its AI systems better than the best. However, FSD tech for now is only capable of handling busy roads in the west, as it has never seen unpredictable traffic and roads like India.
If in future, the top manufacturers decide to go completely out of their comfort zone, and begin the testing locally with specific driving data, things might change in the future, which seems far for now.
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