India's policy blueprint for smart logistics
If you've ever been stuck behind a never-ending line of trucks on a highway, crawling at a snail's pace while belching out thick clouds of diesel fumes, you've experienced just a fraction of India's freight crisis. Our roads are overloaded, our supply chains are inefficient, and logistics costs are eating into the economy. India moves 4.6 billion tonnes of goods annually, with nearly 60% of freight relying on trucks. Yet, our outdated trucking system is riddled with problems—clogged highways, fuel inefficiencies, and a chronic shortage of drivers, making goods movement slow and expensive. At 14% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), India's logistics costs are among the highest in the world—far above the 8-10% global average.
But what if we could reimagine freight movement? What if the trucks rolling down India's highways were driverless, electric, and seamlessly connected to a digital logistics grid? This isn't some far-fetched sci-fi vision. Autonomous freight could be India's breakthrough solution to its logistics nightmare—and the perfect launchpad already exists: India's Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) and Industrial Corridors (DICs). These multi-billion-dollar mega-projects, designed to modernise freight transport, offer the perfect testing ground for cutting-edge logistics solutions. If India acts now, we could leapfrog decades of incremental progress and position ourselves at the forefront of autonomous logistics.
Across the world, countries are embracing Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) for freight transport. In the US, companies like Tesla, Waymo, and TuSimple are testing self-driving trucks on highways, promising to cut transport costs by up to 40%. China is racing ahead with AV-integrated logistics hubs, while Europe is developing "truck platooning"—where autonomous trucks travel in synchronized convoys, reducing fuel consumption and emissions. But India has a unique advantage—we're not burdened by legacy infrastructure. Instead of trying to fit AVs onto chaotic urban roads, we can build dedicated AV freightways from the ground up. The Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors, spanning over 3,300 km, are greenfield projects with cutting-edge infrastructure, meaning we can design them specifically for autonomous trucks—with dedicated AV lanes, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered traffic systems, and real-time satellite monitoring.
Second, smart digital infrastructure is crucial. Autonomous trucks can't function without real-time data. India needs to equip its freight corridors with 5G connectivity for seamless vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, AI-powered traffic management systems to optimise freight flow, and high-precision digital mapping (using LiDAR and satellite imagery) to ensure AVs can navigate safely. With these technologies in place, freight movement will become faster, more efficient, and significantly safer than today's unpredictable trucking system.
Critics might argue that building AV infrastructure requires huge investments. But India already has the funds—it's just about allocating them wisely. Under the ₹100 lakh crore ($1.2 trillion) Gati Shakti Master Plan, a portion can be earmarked for dedicated AV lanes, AI-driven logistics hubs, and 5G-powered, real-time freight monitoring systems. Additionally, India's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme can incentivise domestic manufacturing of AV components—reducing reliance on imports and creating a homegrown AV industry.
India has a habit of moving slowly on emerging technologies—by the time we wake up to their potential, other countries have already set the rules of the game. If we don't act now, global AV giants will dominate this space, and India will once again be forced to play catch-up. But if we move fast, we can define the future of autonomous freight on our own terms—creating millions of jobs in high-tech logistics, slashing supply chain costs, and making India a true global leader in smart transport.
The question is no longer 'Should India embrace autonomous freight?' but 'Can we afford not to?' The trucks of the future are ready to roll. The only thing left is for India to step on the accelerator. Policymakers, industry leaders, and technology innovators must come together to create an AV roadmap for India's freight corridors. The time for pilots and slow-moving committees is over—we need clear regulations, infrastructure investments, and industry collaboration to make autonomous freight a reality.
If India gets this right, we won't just solve our logistics crisis—we'll set a global benchmark for the future of freight transport. The road ahead is open.
This article is authored by Abhishek M. Chaudhari, research assistant, Belfer Center, Harvard and Sahil Deo, co-founder, CPC Analytics.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
33 minutes ago
- Time of India
China's EV leaders surge ahead of Tesla in autonomous technology
Chinese electric-vehicle makers led by BYD have beaten Tesla in the competition to produce affordable electric vehicles . Now, many of those same fierce competitors are pulling into the passing lane in the global race to produce self-driving cars. BYD shook up China 's smart-EV industry earlier this year by offering its "God's Eye" driver-assistance package for free, undercutting the technology Tesla sells for nearly $9,000 in China. "With God's Eye, Tesla's strategy starts to fall apart," said Shenzhen-based BYD investor Taylor Ogan , an American who has owned several Teslas and driven BYD cars with God's Eye, which he called more capable than Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" (FSD). It's not just BYD. Other Chinese auto and tech companies are offering affordable EVs with FSD-like technology for a relative pittance. China's Leapmotor and Xpeng, for instance, offer systems capable of highway and urban driving in $20,000 vehicles. A slew of Chinese firms are chasing the same technology, an industry push backed by China's government. BYD's assisted-driving hardware costs are far lower than Tesla's, according to analyses performed for Reuters by companies that dismantle and analyze vehicles for automakers. The comparisons, which have not been previously reported, show that BYD's costs to procure components and build a system with radar and lidar are about the same as Tesla's FSD, which doesn't have such sensors. That undercuts Tesla's unusual technological approach, which aims to save costs by nixing such sensors and relying solely on cameras and artificial intelligence. The rising competition from Chinese smart-EV players is among the chief problems confronting Tesla CEO Elon Musk after his rocky tenure as a Trump administration advisor as he refocuses on his business empire, as Tesla vehicle sales are tanking globally. The stakes are made higher by a moment-of-truth challenge this month in Tesla's home base of Austin, Texas, where it plans to launch a robotaxi trial with 10 or 20 vehicles after a decade of Musk's unfulfilled promises to deliver self-driving Teslas. Tesla did not respond when reached for comment about its Chinese competitors. Previously, Musk has described Chinese car companies as the most competitive in the world. Chinese competition was one factor driving Tesla's strategic pivot away from mass-market EVs last year, when Reuters reported it had killed plans to build an all-new EV expected to cost $25,000. Musk has since staked Tesla's future instead on self-driving robotaxis, the hopes for which now underpin the vast majority of the automaker's stock-market value of roughly $1 trillion. Now Tesla faces the same stiff competition on vehicle autonomy from many of the same Chinese automakers who undercut its affordable-EV plans. Adding to the challenge are tech firms including Chinese smartphone giant Huawei, which supplies autonomous-driving technology to major Chinese automakers. Short of full autonomy, today's driver-assistance systems offer a critical competitive edge in China, the world's largest car market, where Tesla sales are falling amid a protracted price war among scores of homegrown EV brands. Tesla is further handicapped by China's regulations preventing it from using data collected by Tesla cars in China to train the artificial intelligence underpinning FSD. Tesla has been negotiating with Chinese officials, so far without success, to get permission to transfer such data back to the United States for analysis. Tesla's competitors in China do benefit from subsidies and other forms of policy support from Beijing for advanced assisted driving technology. Their advantages also stem from another consequential factor: cut-throat smart-EV competition that has characterized their industry over the past decade. The resulting EV boom created economies of scale and the industry's tendency to forgo some profit margins to expand new technologies' market penetration quickly, leading to lower manufacturing costs. Streets of Shenzhen BYD investor Ogan, of Shenzhen-based Snow Bull Capital, has a front-row seat to China's autonomous-tech battleground. He recently drove several BYD models equipped with God's Eye, he said, and didn't have to take over driving in any of them while traveling the congested streets of Shenzhen, a bustling southern China megalopolis of 18 million people. Another notable smart-EV player in China is Huawei, experts say. Huawei lends its technology and branding to a half dozen automakers including heavyweights Chery, SAIC and Changan, and has lower-profile partnerships with more than a dozen other carmakers, Huawei representatives said. Reuters journalists rode in an Aito M9 - a luxury electric SUV from Seres with Huawei driver-assistance technology - as it navigated Shenzhen roadways in April. With a driver's hands off the wheel, the vehicle exited a highway seamlessly into a congested urban zone, where the M9 proceeded cautiously and slowed to a crawl as a construction worker appeared like he might walk into the roadway. At one point the vehicle turned right and slowly drifted left to avoid two men unloading boxes from a parked truck. The vehicle then parallel parked itself at Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters. Huawei was among several Chinese companies, including automakers Zeekr, Changan and Xpeng, that touted progress towards fully-autonomous cars at April's Shanghai auto show, even as Beijing announced a new marketing crackdown on terms such as "smart" and "intelligent" driving in the wake of a deadly crash in a Xiaomi vehicle involving driver-assistance technology. Huawei said it's ready to undergo a new validation regime being developed by Chinese regulators to certify so-called Level 3 driving systems, meaning they are capable enough to allow drivers to look away unless notified by the system to take over. Zeekr, a luxury brand of China auto giant Geely, also plans to soon sell cars with Level 3 systems. Tesla has yet to release such an "unsupervised" version of FSD because its technology needs more training to operate without a driver's hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Tesla plans to launch self-driving robotaxis in Austin this month. Little is known about its plans. The company has said it aims to initially deploy between 10 and 20 fare-collecting driverless robotaxis in restricted geographic areas of the city, which Tesla has not publicly identified. 'God's Eye' one the cheap Chinese EV makers are moving quickly to develop driver-assistance systems in a market where car buyers are demanding them at a faster pace than in other regions, analysts say. Their ability to do so at lower costs poses the biggest threat to Tesla's new autonomy-based business model. BYD buyers can get an FSD-comparable version of God's Eye as a standard feature in cars priced at about $30,000. The cheapest FSD-equipped Tesla in China is a Model 3 selling for about $41,500. According to an analysis by A2MAC1, a Paris-based tear-down firm that benchmarks components, the mid-level God's Eye version most comparable to Tesla's FSD runs on an Nvidia computing chip with data collected through 12 cameras, five radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and one lidar sensor, at a cost of $2,105. That compares to $2,360 for Tesla's FSD, which uses cameras without sensors and two AI chips, the firm estimates. Cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors are cheaper in China than comparable devices in Europe and the United States, A2MAC1 estimates. Lidar sensors cost about 20 per cent less, the firm says. Sensor costs have fallen because China's EV boom created economies of scale, said A2MAC1 engineer Elena Zhelondz. The fierce competition also pushed carmakers and suppliers to accept lower profits on driver-assistance equipment, she said. BYD's 22 per cent gross margin will likely fall as it gives away God's Eye but it will benefit from a vehicle-sales boost, said Chris McNally, head of global automotive and mobility research for advisory firm Evercore. More cars, more miles, better AI Falling behind the Chinese brands on driver-assistance technology would compound Tesla's challenges in China, where it's already losing market share to rivals, including BYD, which sells an entry-level EV for less than $10,000. The growing scale of BYD and others could also provide a technological advantage: Racking up more miles on China roads helps train the AI technology needed to perfect automated-driving systems. BYD has a "clear and ongoing market-share driving advantage" over Tesla in gathering such on-road data to refine God's Eye, Evercore's McNally said, adding that advantage might only increase as offering God's Eye for free helps sell more BYD vehicles. BYD's scale also helps lower costs by providing uncommon leverage over suppliers. In November, a BYD executive in charge of passenger-vehicle operations wrote to suppliers telling them that the automaker sold 4.2 million vehicles last year (more than double the number of Teslas sold) because of "technical innovation, economies of scale, and a low-cost supply chain." The executive noted the new year would likely bring more growth, but also fiercer competition. Without specifically mentioning God's Eye, he ended the letter by asking the suppliers for an across-the-board 10 price cut on all parts and systems starting on January 1, calling the new year a final "knockout round."
India Today
41 minutes ago
- India Today
He wants to speak to me: Donald Trump on plans to speak to Musk on phone
US President Donald Trump has said he has no immediate plans to speak with tech mogul Elon Musk, amid their escalating feud over the Republican-backed tax and spending bill. However, Trump also hinted he was open to a conversation, telling reporters, "If I were him, I would want to speak to me".Asked whether a phone call with the Tesla and SpaceX chief was on the horizon, Trump responded, "Umm I haven't really thought about it actually. I would imagine he wants to speak to me. Maybe he's already called. You'd have to ask him. Ask him if he's already called. But I'd have no problems with it".advertisementThe latest comments come after a dramatic fallout between Trump and Musk, once considered allies, following Musk's vocal opposition to a Republican tax-cut package championed by the White House. Though Musk hasn't directly addressed Trump in recent days, he has continued to slam the legislation, which included key components of Trump's domestic economic agenda. The rift became public last week when Musk, who had informally advised Trump during his first term, criticised what the president called the "Big, Beautiful Bill". Trump had initially remained silent, but later told reporters aboard Air Force One that he was "very disappointed" in the billionaire a sharp escalation, Musk declared that Trump would have lost the last election without his backing and even floated the idea of impeachment. The tech mogul, who reportedly spent nearly USD 300 million on Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, had previously vowed to reduce his political donations and called for the ouster of lawmakers who "betrayed the American people".advertisementIn response, Trump suggested his administration could sever government ties with Musk's companies, including lucrative contracts involving SpaceX and its satellite internet wing, the height of the standoff, Musk even threatened to withdraw SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft from NASA missions to the International Space Station, a move that would jeopardize the US space program. He later walked back the strained relationship threatens to ripple through Republican circles ahead of the crucial midterm elections next year. With Musk hinting at pulling financial support and other Silicon Valley donors watching closely, the Republicans risk losing a critical source of influence and InMust Watch
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Has Trump banned Tesla in US amid feud with Elon Musk? Fact-checking viral video
A video surfacing on social media allegedly shows Donald Trump announcing a ban on the production of Tesla vehicles in the country amid his feud with Elon Musk. The US President is heard saying in the viral video, 'Today, I am here to announce that I will be banning the production of all Teslas in the United States of America, effective immediately. As everyone knows, Elon stabbed me in the back a couple days ago and went crazy on his platform X, lying about my involvement in the Epstein files…Nobody likes Teslas anyways, unless you're a nerd, they catch fire and break down easily…' Trump said in the video that Teslas are"junk cars" that only "nerds" like. He added that he only bought one "to show my support for Elon,' calling the X owner a 'snake' who he would not allow to make 'money in this country while I'm the president." The video was widely shared on X and other social media platforms with the claim that Trump has banned Tesla production in the US. No credible sources confirm a ban on the production of Teslas. According to various fact-checking outlets, including Factly and Newschecker, the video was manipulated using AI tools. A community note under the above video says, 'Misinformation! This video is AI-generated. Nothing to do with reality.' Factly also found the original video, uploaded on the YouTube channel of ABC 10 News on 31 May, 2025, titled 'Trump Honors Elon Musk in Final Day at White House | Full Video'. The video description reads, 'President Donald Trump bid farewell to Elon Musk in the Oval Office, recognizing his impact as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk, known for his leadership at Tesla, SpaceX, and X, was credited with reforming bureaucracy and cutting billions in federal spending. Though controversial, Musk's tenure is considered one of the most sweeping government reform efforts in modern U.S. history.' However, in the entire video, nowhere did Trump announce a ban on Tesla. The transcript of the press conference did not reveal any reference to a ban either. The truth is, the video was manipulated using AI, and no such ban has really been announced.
