Chiratae, Nvidia Execs -backed Minus Zero Unveils India's 1st Autonomous Car zPod

Bengaluru-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup Minus Zero has just unveiled India's first autonomous/ driverless car — z-Pod.

With z-Pod, Minus Zero achieved fully autonomous driving using only cameras. The young startup dubbed its cutting-edge AI technology — 'Nature-Inspired AI'. The startup's proprietary technology is less dependent on extensive data and costly sensors like LIDAR, and is tailored to Indian roads.

Forget driving, it's time for an extraordinary journey.
Introducing our z-Pod, where the car becomes an immersive experience. Discover the future of mobility with our visionary design...#zpod #autonomousvehicles #minuszero #ai4good #launch #ai #selfdrivingcar #technology… pic.twitter.com/5yEqYEmmgl

— Minus Zero (@teamminuszero) June 5, 2023

Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and TCM Sundaram Founder and Vice Chairman of Chiratae Ventures take the first ride in the Z Pod.

Founded in 2021, by Gagandeep Reehal and Gursimran Kalra, Minus Zero raised $1.7 million in seed round funding in May 2021, which was led by Chiratae Ventures, JITO Angel Network, a few senior executives from chipmaker NVIDIA and Uber competitor – Lyft.

Experience the cutting-edge technology that's set to revolutionize the way we travel...
Say goodbye to conventional driving and hello to the world of autonomy✨😁💥#autonomousvehicles #minuszero #ai4good #launch #ai #selfdrivingcar #technology #robotics #zday #Makeinindia… pic.twitter.com/maGZ2zYVx8

— Minus Zero (@teamminuszero) June 5, 2023

z-Pod do not have a steering wheel and the strategically-placed high-resolution cameras help the car in analysing driving conditions, which includes traffic.

The surroundings of the autonomous vehicle are captured in a camera-sensor suite which is shared with the AI system embedded in it. In turn, the information is processed by the AI through images to help zPod control its speed, avoid obstacles, and stop.

The startup claimed that the self-driven car can be scaled up to "Level 5" autonomy, which is the ultimate level of autonomy for driver-less vehicles , where the driver does not have to be in control at all during travel, and the vehicle can handle any road condition, type of weather, and no longer be bound to geo-fenced locations.

With z-Pod, Minus Zero has achieved an industry breakthrough in autonomous vehicles sector by bringing down the cost of vehicle from R&D to production by eliminating the usage of high-cost technologies & apparatus. It also minimized the use of large data for training the AI model.

The startup has earlier developed an autonomous three-wheeler prototype for Indian roads. It used an AI that can extract 3D information from a 2D camera image with comparable accuracy.

In the e-Rickshaw, Minus Zero installed eight 2D cameras function as the ‘eyes of the vehicle’ and gather data, the radars and ultrasonics work as backup data collectors in case one or more cameras fail.

Researchers at IISc and Wipro Team up for Autonomous Car for Indian Conditions by Mar'22

Scientists and researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and IT major Wipro Ltd have joined hands to create an autonomous, driver-less car for Indian conditions that has chaotic conditions including potholes, cattles, 'dearly' cows and everything in between. To recall,  in last month Wipro had announced a strategic partnership with IISc to conduct advanced applied research in autonomous systems, robotics and 5G space.

Dr Ramachandra Budihal, Wipro’s head for AI, autonomous systems and robotics, is leading the work to build the car at the IISc campus with a team of 18 engineers.

Key investigators in the initiative, Prof A G Ramakrishnan from the department of electrical engineering at IISc said if we have an autonomous vehicle in India with conditions like-- humans, cycles, autos going--it has to take care of all these factors, plus the zero infrastructure, the potholes and the fact that everything is random.

Professors from six IISc departments that includes aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, electrical communication engineering, electronic systems engineering, electronic design and technology, computer science and automation are involved in the project, The Indian Express reported.

[caption id="attachment_135198" align="aligncenter" width="759"] The car being used for data collection in the project[/caption]

With a plan to have about 28 sensors on the autonomous car, researchers have been using a car equipped with multiple sensors to collect raw data on aspects of navigating the roads in Bengaluru and have selectively picked out around 100 hours of data, out of nearly 1000 hours collected in the last 6 months, to build algorithms and systems for the driverless car.

“We are working on some cutting edge algorithms for Indian conditions. Earlier whatever we worked on was user data from Europe and America but we want to do something for India. We cannot use the systems that we built for the other data sets because the conditions here are unique," said Dr Ramachandra Budihal.

With a targeted rollout date of March 2020, the collaboration for driverless car is an extension of a nearly 3-year effort at Wipro to build an autonomous car using data for roads in Europe and the US.

In addition the collaboration is also an effort to take IISc and Wipro to the frontiers of new technology -- automation, robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and neuromorphic systems.

According to a year 2017 survey by Intel, Autonomous vehicles will most likely be the single greatest opportunity for the creation of value and wealth during the 21st Century, with the self-driving vehicles industry growing on to become a $7 trillion industry by 2050 making it one of the single largest industry, globally.

Over the past six months, investigators have been using a car equipped with multiple sensors to collect raw data on aspects of navigating the roads in Bengaluru and have culled out around 100 hours of data, out of nearly 1000 hours collected, to build algorithms and systems for the driverless car.

The plan is to have about 28 sensors on the autonomous car, say the scientists.

“The kind of data the sensors gather and the range it captures is unique for the Indian conditions. The rate of change, the number of events that happen per second is far higher than what is needed any where else. The number of events that take place per second is several and the latency from one event to the next is very small so you have to program. Video, radar, sensors are all being used to gather data,’’ Budihal said.

One of the key challenges in building a driverless car for Indian road conditions is the amount of processing power that will be needed on board the car to process the enormous amount of data coming in from the road environment, say the scientists involved in the project.

“The processing power needed for this data is far in excess of what is seen in more organised environments,’’ said Prof Debasish Ghose of IISc’s aerospace engineering department.

Other Autonomous Car Projects in India

In July 2017, software giant Infosys had unveiled its very own self-driving vehicle, a ‘driverless’ cart, which has been indigenously developed by Infosys at its Mysore centre and was showcased by the-then Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka.

In the same year, Delhi-based defence IoT startup CRON Systems had announced that it is working to develop the prototype of fully-functional driverless truck this year to help Indian army to deal in hostile locations.

In June this year, Indian cab-hailing firm Ola has set up an advance technology center in Silicon Valley of the U.S to develop technologies related to electric/ connected and autonomous vehicles.

Top featured Image  by Aatur Harsh

Infosys Showcases First Indigenously-Built Driverless Cart

Software giant Infosys has proven that innovation and India can go very well together. The company recently unveiled its very own self-driving vehicle, a ‘driverless’ cart. The vehicle, which has been indigenously developed by the Bengaluru headquartered MNC at its Mysore centre, was showcased by
Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka at a recent media briefing.

The company aims to use the autonomous cart, which is equipped with sensors that sense its environment, for training its employees on new emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. It is capable of navigating without human assistance and comes with advanced control systems that helps these vehicles in identifying navigation paths as well road obstacles, signage etc.

In a recent tweet, Sikka said:

https://twitter.com/vsikka/status/885719196797091841

Talking more about the cart at the media briefing, “I drove here to this venue in our own indigenously— built autonomous golf cart. This is a test bed that we have built to train thousands of engineers on autonomous driving technology as we renew our existing services on the basis of these dual forces of automation and innovation."

According to Sikka, this new development demonstrates his company's efforts towards focusing on new areas of services and software. At the press briefing, Sikka also divulged that over 10 per cent of the company’s total revenue has come from these new products and services in Q1 2017.

According to Sikka, the cart is a symbol of cutting- edge technology and a proof that India has what it takes to build transformative technologies right on its home ground.

Delhi-based Startup To Provide Driverless Trucks To The Indian Army

Delhi-based defence IoT startup CRON Systems is working to develop the prototype of fully-functional driverless truck this year to help Indian army to deal in hostile locations. According to the team of CRON Systems, the first prototype would be ready within next six months. About 40 team members including co-founders of CRON Systems, Tushar Chhabra, Saurav Agarwala, and Tommy Katzenellenbogen are working together on the development of this prototype.

Chhabra was quoted as saying to Economic Times today, “We intend to do a pilot before December this year and have a fully functional product up and running by the first quarter next year.” He claimed that autonomous trucks can help soldiers figure out the best routes and give them zero-visibility driving capability. The existing trucks themselves will be equipped with autonomous facilities. The advantage of these vehicles is that they can reach to the soldiers during emergency without any human involvement. Further, they reduce causality by replacing soldiers at intrusion points during search operations.

The startup is already in advanced stage of discussion with two biggest automobile manufacturers in India to use the technology in their trucks. In addition, a lot of the back-end technology has been formed by collaborating with Automotive Robotics, a player in the engine and power train testing field. Chhabra said, “We plan to make a plug and play model which can be used to convert the existing trucks into autonomous or at least semi-autonomous vehicles."

RELATED READING - India’s 9 Defence Tech Startups Giving Boost To Indian Armed Forces

The startup, which had earlier developed encrypted communication system miCRON, laser walls for the Border Security Force and laser-guided surveillance systems, has come up with an offline mapping system for trucks. The laser walls at the border are used as pointers for the trucks to communicate and drive forward. Chhabra added, “At borders, we cannot use the satellite maps. That would be like giving away the positions. So, we have developed an offline mapping system.”

To safeguard against cyber threats, all the platforms along the border are connected to CRONet, an internal communication network. CRONet will not talk to any other device except the device available to the forces. “All our products are primarily designed for the Border Security Forces and Indian Army. We have three-four people sitting at our office who work 24X7 to prevent such incidents,” Chhabra concluded.

Notably, CRON Systems also singed a technology pact with Israel’s defence robotics company Automotive Robotic Industry Ltd (ARI) to integrate smart ARI rovers with CRON’s laser-guided surveillance systems.

Launched in 2015, CRON Systems joins deep research in lasers, data, artificial intelligence, encrypted communications and automation to offer accurate and seamless laser-guided intruder detection infrastructure. In January this year, the startup had received funding from YourNest, India’s leading early stage investor for the deployment of cutting edge technology solutions for the Indian security forces.

Moreover, some of the solutions produced by CRON Systems have also been adapted for commercial purposes by different industries. Tushar Chhabra, Saurav Agarwala and Tommy Katzenellenbogen founded CRON Systems in 2015. Its initial product the KAVACH Laser Wall, powered by Infrared and Laser is a Perimeter Intrusion Detection Platform has already applied at the Indo-Pak border for helping Border Security Forces (BSF). The startup is also working on Automated Drones and Smart Fencing to empower border forces with critical facilities.

[Top Image - Respresentative Via Shutterstock]