Taking things one level higher, India may soon get its driverless electric vehicle. It may sound crazy, but Wipro and IISc have teamed up to make this a reality. The IT giant and the Indian Institute are planning to develop a driverless EV. They are expecting to realize this project by 2020.

Wipro has plans to invest a whopping 9.6 crore INR for this project. It will gather and make use of data from the European and American roads. There will be an implementation of modern-day technologies such as AI, machine learning, robotics, autonomous systems, etc. In fact, Wipro plans to equip 28 sensors on their proposed EV.

Driverless EVs in India: Possible obstacles

Needless to say, this project may only limit itself to the release of the concept car. We know the difficult road conditions in India. So, most probably we won’t get to see a production version of this driverless EV.  The Indian roads have a load of unregulated traffic. Most roads are not in proper condition for the basic ICEVs to work. In fact, there is a majority of the populace who keep breaking the rules.

So, we can’t really expect a driverless sophisticated EV to run on a busy Indian street. India is highly capable of producing such EVs, but other factors and infrastructures are not up to the mark.

Besides, the cost factor will be another hindrance. Anything with the sophistication of being driverless and sustainable will cost a bomb. So, a regular customer caring about budget and efficiency will never go for it. So, we can expect one or two prototypes that may take part in the prestigious Indian motor shows.

However, India is already fairing well in terms of regular consumer electric vehicles. Even the shift to EV has a loud support from the government itself. Recently, the Indian government cut down GST on electric vehicles. A number of new dedicated EV makers have stepped into the game. There is a great demand for sustainable two-wheelers in India. The supply is quite significant as well. There are a lot of options in the Indian EV market for electric two-wheelers.

However, we can hope for the best for Wipro and IISc’s driverless EV project. Stay tuned with EVLens. We will keep you updated on this matter.