Scotland's Autonomous Car Testing Might Be A Great Idea For India

Harin - Dec 29, 2018

Scotland’s plans for autonomous vehicle testing in rural areas might be a great idea for India since they have somewhat the same road conditions.

If you have ever travelled to Indian rural areas, you must admit that the journey is not an easy one for humans. It is even more difficult for autonomous cars which would have to maneuver to stay clear of wild animals, motorcycles, bicycles, farm vehicles, lorries and many more. Not only that, they also have to avoid potholes and endure broken roads without any road signs.

Imgid172124627 Jpg Gallery — Scotland's rural road with animals wandering around and no signs or markings

This has not stopped Scotland from carrying out an autonomous technology test in the country’s rural areas.

Michael Matheson, secretary of Scottish Transport, wants to make sure that even the rural areas can also experience the latest technology. With this intention, he has made announcement on the testing of driverless cars on the rural areas’ single-track roads in Scotland.

The tests are also implemented to understand autonomous technology’s capability in limited connectivity areas. According to the secretary, if technology is applied effectively in even remote areas, it can undoubtedly have a desired result in urban areas.

He also mentioned that the Transport Scotland agency of the Scottish Government was cooperating with tech developers on possible plans. However, everybody acknowlegdes that this will be a challenging task. Not ony the vehicles need to be adapted to interchanging weathers, they will aso need to be careful with random obstacles which can be wild or stray animals and sometimes even the locals.

What makes this task even more challenging is the fact that the number of markings and road signs is limited in rural areas. Driverless vehicles depend on these signals to know their lane as well as the stops.

However, if the test results are positive, it would be advantageous for the remote areas. Manufacturers are on the process of transforming every machine to autonomous one. This can be applied to rural areas as manufacturers can expand their markets to farming field with driverless harvesters to driverless tractors and so on.

Whether this trial can be conducted in India? We think the answer is yes. With the number of animals we have on the roads, the tests can even be carried out in urban areas.