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New Documentary Explores the Innovations In Autonomous Vehicles & Its Impact On Indian Society
New Documentary Explores the Innovations In Autonomous Vehicles & Its Impact On Indian Society

New Documentary Explores the Innovations In Autonomous Vehicles & Its Impact On Indian Society

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Key takeaways

  • The documentary 'Transition Cost' explores the impact of autonomous vehicles on Indian society.
  • Increased urbanisation has led to longer commute times for Indians, particularly in congested cities like Bengaluru.
  • India has a growing enthusiasm for autonomous vehicle technology, driven by researchers and startups despite challenges.
  • The film features insights from prominent figures in the field, including academics and industry leaders.
5 min
Transition Cost, an Analytics India Magazine original documentary on autonomous-driving cars in India has been made live on the company’s YouTube and Facebook channels. The documentary, done in collaboration with Manipal Prolearn, was first screened at Cypher 2018 has been directed by Hera Pheri Films. Today Indians spend more time behind the wheels than we would have a few years ago. In cities like Bengaluru, where roads are shrinking and the number of vehicles is increasing exponentially, the situation is worsening even more. We already convey distance in terms of time rather than kilometres. On an average, a person spends 3-4 hours a day behind the wheel. While we all are struggling to claim our share of the downtrodden roads, we fight with a variety of stakeholders ranging from stray cows to speeding taxi drivers. While in a different world, people are working on the development of autonomous vehicles. As we still debate if the technology should be human-centric or technology-centric, there are numerous researchers and startups in India that are excelling the development in the field of autonomous vehicles. For the huge population and lack of lane disciplines, the enthusiasm for autonomous-driving technology is quite high. The documentary includes inputs from leading researchers, academicians and thought leaders such as Nitin Gupta (Professor, IIT Kanpur), Sanjeev Sharma (Founder, Swaayatt Robots), Avneesh Agrawal (CEO, Netradyne), Saurabh Chandra (Co-founder, Ati Motors) and Rajendra Ravi (Director, Institute of Democracy and Sustainability), among others The documentary is divided into three chapters. The first chapter, ‘Hello World’, talks about the rapid rise of AI in the transportation sector and how this sudden boom is impacting the lives of people in that sector and also the entire human race in general. Powered by Manipal ProLearn, it gives a plot of recent work in autonomous-driving cars in India. The second chapter, ‘Human Proxy’, is about the human-technology relationship. It talks about AI taking away jobs vs. various job opportunities that AI can create. The third chapter, ‘Beyond Consciousness’ addresses how AI lacks consciousness despite all the efforts in the field, the limitations in the current program and what would happen when AI develops consciousness. Bhasker Gupta, Founder and CEO, Analytics India Magazine said, “While we have been covering the industry in the form of studies, interviews and opinions for a long time, a documentary is a new and interesting way to reach out to the community. We have accumulated views from the industry’s best, that too, on a very debated subject like autonomous and autonomous-driving vehicles. We hope that the audience connects with the documentary, as we all have.”

Watch all the episodes here:

Transition Cost | Documentary | Chapter 1 - Hello World!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pvGJbzTTWk

Transition Cost | Documentary | Chapter 2 - Human Proxy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z6oVGWT3uc

Transition Cost | Documentary | Chapter 3 - Beyond Consciousness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc72Um8uGrw  
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