Tesla: Speed Breakers

Tesla, the world’s premium electric vehicle company founded by Elon Musk, launched officially in India on July 15 with a showroom at Bandra-Kurla Com­plex in Mumbai. Its bestselling Model Y is now on sale for a price around ₹60 lakh. This is about ₹25-30 lakh more than what it is in the United States and that is because of high im­port duties. The mismatch could change in future as India finalises an imminent trade agreement with the US. Also, Tesla will eventually want to do local manufacturing.

But even at this steep price, there will be enough takers because the car’s brand comes with extraordinary snob value. The car itself is a technological triumph. It already has self-driving capabilities and features such as super-quick charg­ing. But will they be able to adapt to India? Take self-driving. In the Tesla system, cameras mimic human vision and then a com­puter does the driving. But safety is the paramount parameter and therefore the car slows down when perceiving any object, or even a potential object, on its path. In the West, where there is road discipline and sudden lane cutting is rare, the vehicle moves at the same pace as a human driver. But imagine it on any busy Indian road where no driver sticks to his lane and the concept of following road rules is just an inconvenience when the traffic policeman is around. Indian roads operate in chaos and they are not amenable to algorithms.

On the other hand, Musk has a history of using technol­ogy to create solutions for intractable problems. Google, for instance, managed to map India’s roads and now its Google Maps app predicts traffic with a fair amount of accuracy. This might not have seemed so easily possible before it happened. How much Tesla’s cars adapt to India will be a function of how interested the company is in the market. If it is satis­fied with the car remaining a premium product, like many super luxury car brands around, then it doesn’t have much incentive to create radical breakthroughs. If Tesla sees India as a mass market that defines its future, like taxi fleets without drivers, then it will be pressing hard on the accelerator.

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