Here’s why Nitin Gadkari said no to driverless cars in India

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India’s Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said the country won’t have driverless cars and the government will instead focus on cab aggregator platform.
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Gadkari said allowing driverless cars in India would lead to joblessness and the government plans to train drivers as adequate driving skills can provide employment to about 50 lakh people.

"We will not allow driver-less cars in India. India suffers a huge shortage of 22 lakh drivers...Cab aggregators take advantage of these. We are not going to promote any technology or policy that will render people jobless," Gadkari said.

He said the government is planning to introduce a cab aggregator platform where commuters could choose any mode of transportation like electric four-wheeler taxis or two- wheelers.

This step will increase competition with Ola and Uber in India.

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“The government will only be a facilitator in this but the platform will bring in more competition and help commuters to have affordable public transportation,” said Gadkari.

Speaking about electric vehicles, Gadkari said government will promote electric vehicles but would not allow its imports and rather would urge all major automobile companies to manufacture this as per 'Make in India' drive.

Besides, the government is also planning to introduce and make GPS and satellite tracking mandatory in all public and private vehicles.

Besides, plans were afoot to transform public transportation in the country and replace 1.8 lakh buses across the states with luxury buses, the minister said.

"Talks are on with World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help India to replicate the London Transport Authority Model where all the public transportation buses would be replaced by luxury buses and a common man can travel in them by paying about 40 per cent less price as compared to current fares," said Gadkari.

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