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Comment by jnty | Hacker News Reader

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!

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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, and the car will go there. No need for a smartphone app - a normal phone will do.

AFIACT, the only practical difference between this story and self-driving cars is that it involves human labor. However that's cheap in India compared to the West.

The masses however can't afford cars, let alone self-driving cars.

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.

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.

If you are a typical American you are likely to be interacting exclusively with the upper class. Even if they don't feel upper class to you, by local standards they are at worst upper middle class.

I'm from a middle class family in Delhi, and we never had (or could have) afforded a driver full time. Maybe now, my father can, but it is still expensive and not worth it. Most middle class families don't have a driver IMO. Much more common with upper middle class. However, we did hire driver for couple of days in rural areas every now and then.

if you rent a car, getting the drive is never that expensive. Getting a FT driver for your own car is of course different. Rental cost + driver cost is not that much higher even without uber/ola

Do you guys hire other kinds of servants for things like cooking/cleaning/laundry?

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

India had self-driving cars back in 2002.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/2002-hit-and-run-case-s...

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.

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