India's first self-driving car startup Minus Zero gets Rs 13 crore funding. How will it affect Indians?
Rash driving, overtaking, and swearing at the saamne ke gaadi wala driver are the three vital skills that every Indian unofficially learns from their driving school teacher.
If not, they at least learn how to deal with some random stranger who tries to overtake their vehicle and drive rashly. (Of course, this is accompanied by 'tu jaanta nahi mera baap/chacha/tau kaun hai' if you're anywhere in North India, but you get the drift.)
But what will we Indians do when we come across a driverless car? It might sound a little unusual at the moment, but it might be a reality for India in the next few years.
WHO IS GOING TO DO THIS?
If you have seen the web series Guilty Minds on Amazon Prime Video (the episode titled 'Ehno'), the terrible accident might ring a bell. If you haven't watched it, the episode revolves around a self-driven car which causes a terrible accident and leads to serious injuries for the other humans involved in the accident; even with its superb technology.
How?
There is a scene where the self-driven car is on a national highway, and a man suddenly pops up in the middle of the road. The strong sensors help the car to brake, thus averting a disaster.
But then, instead of taking a reverse or pausing for a longer time, the car takes a turn to switch directions. When it does so, its technology misses the high speeding taxi coming from behind it. The speeding taxi hits the self-driven car, thus causing the accident.
At the end of the day, the car owner is let off with a penalty.
NOW, WHY WE'RE TALKING ABOUT SELF-DRIVEN CARS IN INDIA
Minus Zero is a Bengaluru-based company and is the first Indian startup to build fully autonomous (or self-driven) vehicles using artificial intelligence. Headed by founders Gagandeep Reehal and Gursimran Kalra, the company aims to bring affordable, self-driving technology to a large customer base. Recently, Minus Zero raised funds of $1.7 million (Rs 13.18 crore) from Chiratae Ventures to expand the scope of their technology.
Glad to announce our latest fundraise led by @ChirataeVC @tcmsundaram
— Minus Zero (@minuszeroindia) May 23, 2022
Congratulations @GagandeepReehal pic.twitter.com/cPiTd3In8r
THE MINUS ZERO STORY
In 2021, the team first successfully tested their technology on a three-wheeled rickshaw and now, they intend to go bigger and automate four-wheeler vehicles too. This is what their first test looked like:
SO, HOW WILL IT AFFECT US?
When things get out of hand on the road, you can always swear at the driver and spend a couple of minutes ranting about how he has lost his mind. At least for now.
However, if this technology expands well and fast and everything goes as per the company's plans, you can expect to see some driverless cars on Indian roads by late 2022 and early 2023.
Also, these would be Indian-origin, self-driven cars that will compete with companies like Tesla and Google’s Waymo.
We know this because the company has announced that they intend to utilise the funds for
1. further R&D on autonomous vehicles,
2. expand its team to begin development on their cars, and
3. work on multiple patents to create technology to improve the decision-making process for the system. (Decision-making is very important for self-driven cars since the technology has to consider important factors like the road infrastructure, driving behaviour of other motorists on the road, and the weather conditions in the area to function correctly).
BUT WILL THIS REALLY WORK IN INDIA?
You might think that self-driving cars might work well only in countries like US and UK where drivers drive with much more discipline. Also, Indians are known for their notorious driving skills and rash driving.
So, will this even work here?
Well, here is a test that the company did to understand if the technology can handle tricky Indian drivers.
What about driving at night? This is how the self-driving car might function:
So, it looks like Indians will really be facing one big question: What will we really rant about if a self-driven car overtakes our vehicle?