Well, as a child any boy would have imagined to drive or rather sit in a car which would drive by itself. Remember the James Bond or Minority Report futuristic cars where the car would drive all by itself. The actor would type or voice out the destination and car (always in a sensuous Female voice) would draft out the appropriate route based on traffic and drive itself to the destination. Now, we already use the routing technique, through the genius of Google Maps and GPS technology. And now Google has built a working prototype to handle the second part!

Its called, the Google Self – Driving Car. The cars use a laser radar on the roof of the vehicle to detect obstacles, pedestrians and other cars. Using GPS and a bit of artificial intelligence, the car can drive itself with very little or no intervention from the human sitting inside.

Now this prototype is been in the making for the past 2 years and has been surrounded by controversies. In 2010, one of the test vehicles met with an accident, which the Google representatives rubbished by proving that the car was in Manual control when the accident took place. The other rumor is that, it does not function in torrential weather.

That said, credit should be given to Google to at least churn out a working model which can be perfected over time. In May 2012, The state of Nevada has issued a first license for one of Google’s self-driving cars. That’s atleast a start.

So lets say that Google does manage to get this car into production, what would be the things Google have to consider before launching it in India

1) For starters, the AI should have immense amount of patience built into it to maneuver the Autos, the trucks and but ofcourse the many street animals like cows, dogs, snakes etc….

2) They would definitely have to perfect their navigation in torrential weather conditions.

3) Should have the processing power to tackle numerous Pot Holes. Or better, they can get the cars built in with the Jump suspension systems you see in Speed Racer.

4) Should definitely be equipped with a voice of its own! No road in India can be traveled without  uttering at-least one foul word to the fellow manual drivers.

5) The GPS should be able to track down each and every small Gaalli and Konna of the earth. For this, they can have a test drive at Mumbai’s Dhaaravi.

Jokes apart, this concept car would definately be welcomed in India, with its many cases of drunk , rash driving. Many a lives can be saved and of course it has the potential to reduce the traffic snarls, enabling the end consumers to save on the additional petrol costs.

Lets hope Google perfects the car soon. Cant wait to use one of these..

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