THE REASONS WHY SELF DRIVING CARS CANNOT WORK IN NIGERIA

Outside Nigeria and in fact Africa, passive driving has become the norm as self driving cars with a lot of driver assists have made life easy for daily drivers. On YouTube, there are countless videos of people sleeping off in their self driving vehicles and they get away with it, arriving at their destination unharmed. I dare those sleepy drivers to try the same in Nigeria, it would take only one Dangote truck to send them to their maker. It is sad but the reality is that self driving cars cannot work in Nigeria, at least for now because very active driving is needed to survive the roads of Nigeria.

Tesla Driver Sleeping off on the Highway

There are multiple reasons why self driving cars in Nigeria is near impossible and they include;

1. Most Nigerians Do Not Obey Traffic Rules and Regulations

Just imagine yourself chilling in your self driving Tesla at a red light and then the light goes green, alerting your cars software to get the car moving again. Your car then begins to move, only for one unfortunate 'korope' driver to run into you because he was trying to beat the light. What a terrible scenario but if you were to be in a self driving car in Lagos during rush hour, this is exactly what would happen. Until Nigerians learn to be patient and obey traffic rules, self driving cars remain a myth on our roads.

Tesla Software Sync with Traffic Lights

2. Numerous Pot Holes and Ditches

In a sane society, I should be able to travel from Ibadan to Lagos while maintaining a single lane for the entirety of the journey. Whereas in Nigeria, you would have to swerve from one lane to the other trying to avoid pot holes large enough to engulf a whole car. A self driving car would find it so difficult to make such drastic manoeuvres while maintaining highway speed and it would only be a matter of time before a reckless Lagos bus driver following you bumper to bumper, rear ends your car. I bet Tesla's software would recognise the pot hole in the image below as a bottomless pit.

    An average sized pot hole in Nigeria

3. Reckless Drivers in Nigeria

In most instances, the problem is not with you the driver but with all other motorists around you, especially the commercial drivers. I remember sometime last year when a motorcyclist ran into the side of my car while I was trying to navigate my way into a street. The motorcyclist was clearly not paying attention and did not see me trafficating. With all the watchfulness we practice to avoid road accidents that still occur daily in Nigeria, now imagine adding self driving cars into the mix, it would be a total disaster.

Road Traffic Accident

4. Undefined Road Systems 

For self driving cars to function, there is a software that handles all the operations of the car. A driver can easily input a destination point into his self driving car and go ahead to fall asleep, only to be awaken when he gets to his destination. Most of these self driving software make use of google maps to navigate cities but in Nigeria where network coverage is an issue, let alone the many irregularities with mapping in Nigeria. A driver could input Victoria Island into the self driving car, only to wake up and see himself in Ikorodu.

Tesla's Map System

I did not intend this episode to be a shade to Nigeria's road system but it turned out to be so. It is without a doubt that self driving cars cannot operate in Nigeria except in some organized places like Lagos Islands and Abuja. It would take a lot for us to get to the level of self driving cars but it is inevitable, because it is the future of the automotive world.

The Future of the Automotive World

It is exam season once again, so I will be gone for a week or two. Until then, thank you for reading and always remember to Turbo that engine!