Driving Into The Future: Regulating Autonomous Vehicles

Driving – or the controlled operation and movement of a vehicle – is not an overwhelming task for humans. But what goes into the mechanics of driving is a complex operation of vehicle controls while constantly monitoring surroundings. This is in fact a mammoth task and machines have been limited to driver-assisted roles for decades. With recent developments in software and artificial intelligence (AI), we could be seeing self-driving vehicles plying on Indian roads within the decade. Autonomous vehicles (AVs), as they are also known, can be categorized broadly along a spectrum of six levels of autonomy, 0 being no autonomy and 6 being full autonomy of the vehicle. Level 3 autonomy vehicles have begun gaining traction in India. Driver-assist systems like cruise control, lane departure warnings, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are already currently being offered in vehicles.