A driverless car! Yes where we just could not imagine having one running on roads in India, few friends together have developed it and are all set to make it run on roads. Before we start telling you the features of this mind boggling car, let us first tell you how the idea of this car generated. It was a few years ago when Roshy John took a cab to his way back home from the airport. Unfortunately, the driver of the cab was so sleepy that he lost his control and drove into another car. After experiencing this near to death incident, John started thinking about something that would save people in such accidents and then he came up with this idea.
Now after five years he along with his friends has managed to develop India’s first ever driverless car- The Tata Nano Autonomous. He worked day night with his 29 member team on the various algorithms and software to finally bring his idea into existence. Well they have created a 3D model but the car has not been tested on the road as they have not got the permission from the traffic police which they hope to be getting soon.
It was back in 2011 when John purchased a Nano to test his softwares and experiment the idea. He says, “The Tata Nano is considered an engineering marvel. What better car to test Indian technology than on a car made in India?” Yes we agree.
He continued saying, “I had to get data from the car to make it accelerate or slow down based on the RPM.” Let us tell you that the techie used onboard diagnostics and a scanner to monitor the engine. After this, using the various algorithms and software working on a cluster of computers, the very talented team was then able to track and read all the parameters of the engine. Apart from these, they have used various other devices to measure the speed of the wheels, laser lights to identify the obstacles in the way, GPS, HDR cameras etc to control the car and make it drive automatically like a human drives.
Smartly, he had attached pedal robots to breaks, accelerator and the clutch and had connected all the software to be controlled well. Finally it was in May 2012 when for the very first time the autonomous car by John was driven on the roads of Bengaluru.
Let us tell you the smart and intelligent techie John has been approached by many auto companies but it seems like he is not so much interested in the offers. He says, “Right through my career, I have encouraged my team members to experiment with advanced technology. I built this car to satiate my hunger for innovation in robotics and inspire others.”
Moreover, a public demo will be soon scheduled. We hope to see this wonderful experiment on roods of the country at the earliest.
