<div><em>It was with her heart in her mouth that <strong>Mala Bhargava</strong> allowed herself to be in a car that parked itself without the help of the driver, but more than that – no. What about you?</em><br><br><br>About ten years ago, I had an awful nightmare which I’ve never quite forgotten. It’s among the handful of bad dreams that never quite go away...</div><div>I was holidaying with family in some unidentified place and we were staying at a smallish hotel. We decided to go sightseeing and hopped on to the tourist bus standing outside the gates. The bus filled up, and soon we set off.</div><div> </div><div>I had quickly settled into a window seat and was soon lost gazing out, taking in the feel of the city as we zipped past. All of a sudden, I turned away from the window and looked around me inside the bus. There was no one there. I was quite absolutely alone.</div><div> </div><div>I was the one person sitting in that bus as it sped on to god knows where without a driver...</div><div> </div><div><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" style="width: 200px"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/mala-bhargava-mdm.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 1px;"></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Mala Bhargava</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>Needless to say I woke up deeply shaken, heart pounding. To this day, I never fully look out of a bus window but keep one eye watchfully tuned in to what’s going on inside. And needless to say I probably wouldn’t step into a driverless bus. But that’s not what they think over in Switzerland and quite a few other places. In Switzerland, a two-year trial of driverless buses making their way through real-life traffic is set to start in just a few months. Local Swiss newspapers report that this use of autonomous vehicles for public transport will start in 2016 and a startup will look after its operations. The buses will carry nine passengers each and go out into open traffic. It’s believed that the introduction of carefully controlled buses will help pave the way for autonomous cars by testing out what it will be like to have such vehicles in regular everyday traffic.</div><div> </div><div>San Ramon, California, is also soon to have the driverless EZ10 electric bus, from the company Easy Mile shuttling passengers from one location to a business park. This is where autonomous vehicles will first start out in America. It's an easier and safer way to see what a driverless future could be like. The route is short and predefined so it should be safe enough. In Trikala, Greece, a bunch of driverless buses have moving about the streets for a while now but without passengers. But now that is changing. A small group of passengers can ride free on these buses which are small and move at a nice and slow speed of 12 miles an hour. If something’s in the way, the bus waits.</div><div> </div><div>Recent news of a Google car that was stopped by a policeman for driving too slow amused the world a fair bit. Eventually, it turned out the car neither did any harm nor was breaking any laws, so it was let off without a fine.</div><div> </div><div>By 2020 Japan wants to have driverless taxis ready for the Tokyo summer Olympics. These will be manned by robots. In fact, retro cars will be fitted with the necessary technology.</div><div> </div><div>There are many driverless car projects on in the world today. Google, as we know well, really took to the roads with this, but other companies are also jumping into this area. It looks like the vehicles and technology will both be ready well ahead of sorting out all the laws and rules and precautions needed before letting these into the wild. In case of an accident, for example, who’s liable? Who’s safety should the vehicle prioritise? Its passengers’, or pedestrians’?</div><div> </div><div>In India, few people can see driverless driving being successful. Of all the wild roads and traffic in the world, some of India’s big cities probably have the very worst. Traffic situations are also far too unpredictable to program. Potholes can appear in the blink of an eyelid, vehicle breakdowns can change the entire traffic scenario at a location, lights stop working at will, and of course let’s not get to the fact that no one follows any rules. This is quite apart from the fact that there are just more people on the roads than the roads were ever designed to handle. The resulting chaos would be difficult to present to a poor driverless vehicle. It was with my heart in my mouth that I allowed myself to be in a car that parked itself without the help of the driver, but more than that – no.</div>
