Dear Shri Gadkariji ,
I remember you having said
sometime back :
“ In India , we will not
allow AUTONOMOUS CARS, which do not require a driver to drive. We cannot allow
millions of DRIVERS lose their jobs “
One another background :
Currently, barring may be,
Bangaluru city , no other Indian city permits BIKE-TAXI ( where client is
riding on the rear seat ) which one can rent for a ride in city, using a mobile
app
I urge you to reconsider
your views in the following perspective :
Ø In
23-24, India produced 4.2 million cars , 99.99 % of them being Petrol or Diesel
. Imagine the amount of GHG they emit and the amount of Traffic Jams they
cause, and the un-productive man-hours, sitting behind the wheel, waiting for
traffic to clear
But imagine , in place of
those “ Single owned PRIVATE “ 42 lakh cars, there
were only 4 lakh
“ Ride-share AUTONOMOUS taxis “ ( described
below ) , how much cleaner would be our air and how
much our productivity would go up ?
If we assume that the
total number of cars ( ICE + EV ) in 2030 is 80 lakhs,
then imagine this TRADE-OFF :
# 80 lakh cars , each running ( asset utilization ) for 10 % of the day (
2.4 hours )-
parked rest of the day
Vs :
# 8 lakh cars running for 100 % of the day ( 24 hours )
I urge you to include this
in your ministry’s 100
DAYS ROAD-MAP
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
www.HemenParekh.ai / 08 Apr 2024
Context :
Elon Musk Announces August Launch
Of Tesla's 'Robotaxis'. What Are They .. NDTV… 06 Apr 2024
Extract :
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced the release
date of his Tesla robotaxi. In a post shared on his platform X, formerly
Twitter on Saturday, the tech billionaire wrote, “Tesla Robotaxi unveil on
8/8.”
What is a Robotaxi?
Tesla's robotaxi, described by Elon Musk
during a 2019 investor event, is a futuristic self-driving vehicle.
Mr Musk envisioned a future where owners could earn by renting out
their autonomous vehicles for use in a taxi service, with Tesla taking a
commission.
My Take :
8 Years ago ,
I blogged :
Ø Name
of the Game : Co-operation ……. ……………………23 Sept 2016
Extract :
There was a time when a Company had to compete with other companies within
its own Industry
Entry-barriers across industries were very high
No more !
In the Internet Age , a Company never knows from where a competitor will
spring up and completely re-write the " Rules
of the Competition Game " !
It seems , the rules of this new Competition Game is , " CO-OPERATION "
Something like : " If you cannot lick them , then join them "
FOR EXAMPLE :
The existing Car Manufacturers are being threatened by the " Non - Car Manufacturers " such
as Amazon / Google / Apple / Alibaba / Baidu etc , who are rushing headlong into
manufacture of Autonomous (
Driverless ) Cars
So these Car Manufacturers have realized the threat looming on the
not-so-distant horizon and started tying-up with " Ride Share " companies
Eg:
* General Motors with Lyft
* Toyato with Uber
* Volkswagen with Gett
* BMW with Scoop
* Ford ( India ) with Zoomcar
* Mahindra & Mahindra with Ola
WHY ?
Because they have realized that the TECTONIC SHIFT shaking
up the Car Industry is :
If you can have " Transport as a Service " delivered WHERE you wants , WHEN you wants , WITHIN 5 minutes and CHEAP , then why OWN a car ? - and
worry about repairs / parking / driver / taxes ?
Ride sharing services are re-writing the rules of " Asset
Ownership Vs Asset Service "
Remember , some 30 years , in many parts of India , homes and shops , used
to " OWN " a small
privately owned diesel-operated GenSet ,
since there were long hours of power BLACK-OUTS ?
One could not depend upon State owned power supply companies . You had to
fend for yourself !
But when power from Public Utility Companies became abundant / cheap and
reliable , private Gensets disappeared !
That is about to happen in case of privately owned cars of which India
produced some 2.8 million in 2015-16
HOW ?
A privately owned car ( may be ) operates for just 2.4 hours ( out of 24
hours ) per day . That is 10 % utilization
Rest of the time , it is parked
But suppose , it was available for plying on the roads , for 50 % of the time ( 12 hours per day ) ?
That is 5 times as much ! And available to ANYONE at a moment's notice (
thru Mobile App )
Then , it is theoretically possible that the number of NEW cars Indian private owners buy , may
go down to 0.5 million per
year ( as against 2.8 million
) , since few people would want to " Buy / Own " a car !
That is huge threat to existing car manufacturers! Imagine being made
obsolete by Ride-Sharing Companies !
WHAT NEXT ?
Next tectonic shift is :
DRIVER-LESS CARS = LESS-CAR
ROADS
Why do you think , car-companies like Tesla / General Motors / VW and
non-car companies like Google / Uber etc are frantically working to launch
" AUTONOMOUS ( DRIVER-LESS ) "
cars ?
They have no love lost for the drivers ! ( May be , a little bit ! )
In a traffic jam taking a taxi from Andheri to Churchgate will take you 90
minutes , even if it is a Uber or Ola
So , a Ride Sharing company may save you those other hassles ( repairs /
parking / taxes / driver etc ) , but it does not save you any travel-time , to
go from A to B
That ( no reduction in travel time ) holds good , even for DRIVER-LESS ,
ride-sharing taxies !
Diver or no driver , travel time remains the same
Except for another " PARADIGM
SHIFT " in case of DRIVER-LESS cars
, viz:
Its utilization can easily go up to 90 % of 24
hours !
Imagine 1 LAKH ,
DRIVER-LESS , Uber / Ola ride-sharing taxies roaming the streets of Mumbai , 24
hours a day !
That may eliminate from the roads of Mumbai , 10 LAKH private cars , making Mumbai , a
* less CAR / less TRAFFIC JAM / less POLLUTED / less NOISY / less TRAVEL-TIME / less ACCIDENT , city !
I hope Shri Nitin Gadkariji , re-focuses on replacing Old Polluting Petrol
/ Diesel Vehicles ( V-VMP )
with Driver-less Ride Sharing Future of Urban Transport
I am sure , he is aware of the Guidelines released by the US Department of
Transportation just 2 days back , which outlined safety expectations and
encourage uniform rules for the DRIVER-LESS CAR technology
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