Self-Driving cars on Indian roads? Are you joking? – This was the comment I made after my friend told me that Uber is testing out self-driving cars in America and it may soon become a reality in India.
After this discussion, I started searching for self-driving cars in India. And there appeared articles saying that Tata Elxsi is building self-driving vehicles in India. It has also requested the government to provide permission for testing it out on a public road in Bangalore. Needless to say, I was embarrassed and proud at the same time.
On reading further, I found that Tata Elxsi is building an Autonomous Vehicle Platform which can be used by other vehicle manufacturers and vendors. Tata Elxsi is an expert at perception systems, guidance navigation control system, drive by wire systems which translate decisions into mechanical activities like braking and acceleration. By fusing all these, Tata Elxsi has built an algorithm that combines inputs from LIDAR ( Light Detection and Ranging) scanning, which is the latest development in surveying technology. Lidar systems can literally map their surroundings at the speed of light) and other sensors to create a worldview.
Tata Elxsi spent a lot of time simulating given inputs before moving on to virtual environments using imported metadata from other sources. Tata Elxsi is now stabilizing algorithms and optimizing the needed compute power in their Autonomous Vehicle Platform.
Tata Elxsi is now ready to test out their creation on public roads in India.
The Tata Elxsi team initially tested out their concept with a Tata Zest car which they had brought from the market. They tore apart different part of the cars, added some mechanical adapters by which the car could be controlled by just a keyboard. Jugaad is the word apt for this scenario.
Nitin Pai, Head of Marketing and Strategy says “Any autonomous solution for India has to work on a Rs 5 lakh car as much as a Rs 1 crore car”.
Hope his vision is realized in the near future.
Sourav Maulik is the Editorial Director for InterviewReady
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