Summary
Around early November 2018 I was in Delphi, Goa, Mumbai for a wedding. India is exactly as you have been told to expect. Controlled chaos on the streets. Hard to find services. Safe. Over whelming poverty, Hard, maybe impossible to imagine, how a change could occur.
Details
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From our very first morning, I have been able to walk. I don’t go down small lanes but I feel perfectly safe walking on the side of the busy roads. I should rephrase that to say I feel perfectly safe from malicious intent. I am continually at risk of being hit by a bicycle, motorcycle or tuctuc. They go in every direction at top speed.
I would love to be involved in an autonomous vehicle development program, It seems that the AI is getting pretty good at US traffic, It will be wonderful to see what adjustments they need to make to survive abd prosper in India. I will have to come up with an analogy. Handling our 27ft power craft on a calm lake verses in a hurricane. Taking a social-economic equal level date to a prom verses a total nut job. I guess weather is the best analogy. Calm balmy summer day verses total below zero hurricane and you have no shelter. Perfect heath verses under the care of a team of doctors fighting your stage 5 cancer.
At the wedding, I presented some of these analogies to a young American. (I am always torn about how to refer to people from my country. I spent the summer of 1965 in Quebec Canada and was thoroughly indoctrinated that America, even North America, is the location of several countries beside the United States. I hate using US as it seems like a group of people rather than a country. USA seems too formal, United States requires an additional word like resident or citizen. So I revert.) He felt that I was totally over stating the comparison. And in truth, we saw no accidents! The older women are so used to this and athletic that they balance side saddle on the racing scooters while the young women straddle and can hang onto the driver. Some women drive scooters. None have men on the back. A few women drive cars. Never saw one drive a tuctuc or taxi.