Mr Gadkari, allowing driverless cars will generate more high-paying jobs

Autonomous vehicles are the logical next step for cab aggregators like Ola and Uber

LATEST NEWS : Nagpur, the home town of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari   , is now a laboratory to test electric vehicles for public transport in India.

Cab aggregator Ola is testing a model that uses electric auto rickshaws, cars, and buses to make adoption of electric vehicles for mass transport viable. If the Nagpur experiment succeeds, Ola will execute the promise by its investor, Japanese internet firm Softbank, of running over a million electric vehicles across India. This vision requires massive investments in cars, buses, and the charging infrastructure. In addition, investments are also required in batteries, which India currently imports.

Both Ola and Uber have an asset-light model — they don't own the cars that run on their platforms. Instead, the cars are leased by the drivers, who repay the loans, spend on maintaining the cars, and then earn enough to fend for themselves. In scale, electric cars have better efficiency and are cheaper to run for more miles than fossil fuel-powered cars.

Till 2016, Ola and Uber splurged billions to woo thousands of drivers to their respective platforms. However, as the taps turned dry and investors pushed them towards profitability, they cut incentives for the drivers and increased prices. This move saw several thousand drivers and customers move away from the respective platforms. There are hundreds of cars on sale now as drivers are finding running on either platform unviable.

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