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How to drive in India (2015)

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Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#21

Post by rohit2412 »

rlpb wrote: post #4
jnty wrote: post #2

I can only assume that the people who predict that self-driving cars are just a few short years away from universal adoption have never visited India!

India already has self driving cars. Hire a car and it comes with a driver, picking you up from wherever you are. You'll get dropped off where you need to be and the car will find somewhere to park itself. When you want to go somewhere else, use your phone and the car will come pick you up, or if where you are is inconvenient for a pickup for whatever reason, you can find somewhere suitable, describe where you are, a…

USA also has chauffers and Uber drivers. So self driving cars are real?

Your argument is as stupid as it comes. Not everyone is upper class and can hire a driver.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#22

Post by mayankkaizen »

npmn2 wrote: post #18

Ok, I learned to drive in Kanpur, infamous for drivers not following anything. Driving around there, you felt alive as you needed to constantly scan the road for potholes, unpredictable vehicles, unannounced speed bumps, running pedestrians, animals and high beam oncoming traffic with no lane separation. Bad Side, driving in other cities has painfully boring and an easy task for me, as you now have lesser variables t…

Kanpur fellow here.

People here wouldn't realize that the situation in Kanpur is far worse than one would guess from description. :)

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#23

Post by rlpb »

rohit2412 wrote: post #21
rlpb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India already has self driving cars. Hire a car and it comes with a driver, picking you up from wherever you are. You'll get dropped off where you need to be and the car will find somewhere to park itself. When you want to go somewhere else, use your phone and the car will come pick you up, or if where you are is inconvenient for a pickup for whatever reason, you can find somewhere suitable, describe where you are, a…

USA also has chauffers and Uber drivers. So self driving cars are real? Your argument is as stupid as it comes. Not everyone is upper class and can hire a driver.

I don't think you understand my point. In India, if you can afford to hire a car, it essentially comes with a driver because of the ratio between the cost of the rental and the cost of the driver. There is therefore far less of an economic benefit to having a self driving car if the purpose is to be cheaper than hiring a driver. India (and other places where the ratio of cost of labour to cost of cars is similar) will be one of the last places where self driving cars will make economic sense.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#24

Post by NullPrefix »

rlpb wrote: post #4
jnty wrote: post #2

I can only assume that the people who predict that self-driving cars are just a few short years away from universal adoption have never visited India!

India already has self driving cars. Hire a car and it comes with a driver, picking you up from wherever you are. You'll get dropped off where you need to be and the car will find somewhere to park itself. When you want to go somewhere else, use your phone and the car will come pick you up, or if where you are is inconvenient for a pickup for whatever reason, you can find somewhere suitable, describe where you are, a…

This doesn't sound far from truth, considering the fact that most startups fake having AI by using manual labor.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#25

Post by vivekseth »

rohit2412 wrote: post #21
rlpb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India already has self driving cars. Hire a car and it comes with a driver, picking you up from wherever you are. You'll get dropped off where you need to be and the car will find somewhere to park itself. When you want to go somewhere else, use your phone and the car will come pick you up, or if where you are is inconvenient for a pickup for whatever reason, you can find somewhere suitable, describe where you are, a…

USA also has chauffers and Uber drivers. So self driving cars are real? Your argument is as stupid as it comes. Not everyone is upper class and can hire a driver.

Are drivers in India limited to just the upper class? Whenever I visit India it feels like anyone who’s not lower class can afford to hire a driver.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#26

Post by vivekseth »

jnty wrote: post #2

I can only assume that the people who predict that self-driving cars are just a few short years away from universal adoption have never visited India!

Yeah, I don’t think I’ll fully trust self-driving cars until they are safe enough to operate in India. I wouldn’t even trust myself to drive in India.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#27

Post by mothsonasloth »

jguimont wrote: post #10
thisisit wrote: post #5

Couple of things which needs to be added: Never get into an accident in India. First, if you driving a car mob will surround and harass you. Second, in case you get away from the mob, police will come and harass you. And things get worse if they perceive you as an outsider. Here's an anecdote which happened with a friend: While taking one of these mentioned u-turns and ensuring that he was honking constantly, a bike…

And that is why when I went there for business, my company insisted on hiring a driver for the whole month. He was a phone call away and was driving me all over the place, anywhere I wanted. (that's also why most politician or people in high places get a driver)

Yea I had a driver when I was in Chennai, it was enjoyable being in an air conditioned Toyota Landcruiser. Was totally worth the extra £10 a day for the company expenses :D

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#28

Post by vmarsy »

I think in a lot of the situations, there's a simple rule that Indian drivers follow, which is like motor boats official rules: the biggest vehicle has priority.

So when it comes to u-turns, cars won't do a u-turn if there's a van or bus coming from the other side, but a bus will have no problem starting a u-turn if there's only a flow of cars and motorcycles coming.

Motorcycles are just expected to flow around, make their u-turn small and fast.

Same thing when it comes to overtaking on small roads, or when there's those traffic police barricades at the entry/exit of towns, which reduces the road size to only one way. At those barricades, people will rarely have to come to a complete stop: they just look at how big the vehicle in front of them is, and if it's bigger they'll slow down to give it priority.

For overtaking, in Western countries we'd just consider whether there's enough space/time to safely overtake (unless you're a driver from the mountain regions), but in India they also consider who would win if there was a frontal crash, and the would-be loser will slow down if needed to make sure the bigger vehicle on the other side can finish overtaking.

The equivalent of the sailing boat in term of priority are the cows on the road: they get priority over any motor vehicle

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#29

Post by jen729w »

paulvs wrote: post #15

A couple more from around the world (esp. Paraguay): 1. To drop a passenger off where there is no street parking, just turn on your hazard lights and stop in the middle of the road. 2. In the seconds before a red light turns green, the cars behind you will honk to get you moving. 3. Be prepared for squeegee men at traffic lights who clean your windscreen for coins even if you say no. 4. Most city parking spots are co…

> 4. Most city parking spots are controlled by guys who "take care" of your car while you're away for notes (really your car would be better off without them, they sometimes scratch your car if you don't pay).

Back in the 90s this would routinely happen at English football grounds. The ‘watchers’ were the local kids - at Roker Park in Sunderland, in my case.

The point is that your car is guaranteed to be scratched if you don’t pay the fee.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#30

Post by delinka »

factsaresacred wrote: post #7

There's an extremely readable version of this for Chiang Mai here: http://www.chiangmailocator.com/wiki-traffic-rules-in-thaila... It's as much a window into Thai culture as it is a guide to driving and contains a few 'aha' insights for those who've ever been perplexed by some of the traffic etiquette in Asia. > The most important factor that influences all Thai traffic behaviour is what I call a Thai driver’s ‘Range…

>...think for yourself but also think for others around you.

I'm in Atlanta traffic every day. This is how I drive.

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