Are India’s auto rickshaws coming to an end?

They’re one of the most recognizable icons of modern India.

The auto rickshaw, a sputtering motorized three-wheeler that’s less than half the cost of a regular taxi, is the backbone of urban transit for millions of Indians.

With the vehicle’s soft top, open sides and lack of seat belts, passengers rely on little more than good karma to keep them safe from crazed drivers on India’s congested roads.

Despite a top speed of only 30 mph, auto rickshaws accounted for 6,300 of the 140,000 traffic fatalities in 2014 in the country. It’s one reason the industry is in tumult.

Sensing a market poised for a revolution, a host of  corporations are vying to replace the rattling workhorse of India’s transportation system with the next generation of cheap taxis to ferry 1.2 billion people around the country’s cities.

The bare-knuckle competition over the future of India’s taxicabs has bred legal conflicts.

The first mover in the race to replace the rickshaw, India’s Bajaj Auto, has been locked in a four-year battle over whether the company’s four-wheeled buggy is safer than the three-wheeler.

 “We’re the world leader in small, three-wheeler taxis, we’re making a lot of money in that segment … We wanted to upgrade and create a much better product that will serve the same purpose.” said S. Ravikumar, Bajaj Auto’s president of Business Development and Assurance.

First unveiled in 2012, Bajaj Auto’s vehicle, a quadricycle called the Qute that already is exported to 16 markets from Egypt to Mexico, offers a fully enclosed steel cab, a fuel-injected engine, seat belts for passengers and head and taillights that are much brighter than those in current rickshaws.

Bajaj Auto’s competitors, including automaker Tata Motors, voiced safety concerns about the quadricycle. The government drafted new regulations for four-wheelers that delayed approval of the new category of lightweight vehicles until February 2014.  Auto rickshaw drivers’ associations and others then filed a unique Indian form of class action called “public interest litigation” that challenged that approval, keeping the Qute off the roads again.

Unlike class action lawsuits in the United States, any concerned citizen can file public interest litigation in India. In theory, courts are supposed to dismiss suits filed solely for financial or political gain. But dismissing the litigation can take years in the Indian legal system, so competing companies often stymie their rivals using the legal maneuver.  As Bajaj Auto’s court case dragged on, Tata unveiled its own low-cost rickshaw replacement, the four-wheeled Magic Iris, which it began pitching to state governments last year.

Other makers of electric three-wheelers have gathered steam in the Indian auto-rickshaw market.

Japan’s Terra Motors recently announced that it will have 30,000 electric rickshaws on India’s streets by the end of the year, and that many companies from China already are selling electric rickshaws in India without regulatory approvals, Chief Executive Toru Tokushige said in a news release.  The Indian automobile and farm equipment conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra was reported to have a quadricycle in the works in 2014, aiming to hit the market next year. And U.S.-based all-terrain vehicle maker Polaris Industries, which entered the Indian market in 2011, has said it is considering the launch of a quadricycle here.