In Google’s California campus, the spooky spectacle of
driverless cars moving quietly on the road is apparently common. Now Google is
letting these cars roam the city streets, and, according to a recent article in
the New York Times by Matt Richtel and Conor Dougherty, the cars are not
enjoying sharing the road with human drivers.
The article describes how, seeing a pedestrian at a zebra
crossing, a self-driving car slowed down, but the car behind it didn’t. The
result? The pedestrian was unharmed, but the Google car ‘was hit from behind by
a human-driven sedan’.
I smiled. Then, as I read what Donald Norman, an expert on
autonomous vehicles, had to say, I chortled aloud: “They (driverless cars) have
to learn to be aggressive in the right amount, and the right amount depends on
the culture.”
How appropriate it would be for the car to be trained in
India, I thought, affectionately reflecting upon our famous driving culture. I
imagine being tasked to travel in the driverless car in Chennai (with the
ability to take over control at my whim) to figure out what changes are needed
in the car’s programming to inculcate an appropriate sense of aggressiveness in
it.
I get into the car and input my destination into the map.
The car reverses silently into my colony road. When we reach the main road,
instead of turning right, the car switches on its indicator and waits. Immediately
the driver behind us blares his car’s horn and gesticulates ‘Move, idiot!’ with
his arm.
