First time in India: Tata Elxsi to test driverless cars on Bengaluru roads

It is leveraging its knowledge in computer science and AI for a share in the promising industry

Tata Elxsi is looking to test an autonomous, or driverless, car out on the roads of Bengaluru. This would be a first in the country.

Currently, all major automobile manufacturers as well as technology firms of the Silicon Valley, such as Google, Apple, Uber and Tesla, are building and testing autonomous vehicles. Experts believe cars that will drive themselves could be as common on the streets as their human-driven older cousins by 2025.

Tata Elxsi works with carmakers and their specialised component suppliers. It is leveraging its knowledge in computer science and artificial intelligence to grab a share of the soon to be multi-billion dollar global industry. It has already begun simulating and testing autonomous cars at a facility on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

“This is a field (autonomous cars) that’s evolving and multiple people are working on it,” said Ashish Khushu, the vice-president and head of the transportation business at the engineering and design services firm. “The fundamental issue is the ability to put in place a system with real-time data analysis and calculation as well as predictive analysis and prescription. This is largely a computer science problem.”

The firm has re-engineered two sedans — one from Tata Motors — and fitted these with several sensors such as LIDAR, radar, stereoscopic cameras and ultrasonic sensors which will send their inputs into the self-driving stack the company has developed. 

The onboard computers will then produce necessary course corrections, braking and accelerator inputs to the car’s systems, resulting in autonomous driving. The Tata group company is currently seeking permission from the authorities to test its autonomous vehicle on Bengaluru’s roads. It did not commit to a timeline. 

The tests would make Tata Elxsi the first global company to attempt such a feat on Indian roads, giving it valuable data on driving an autonomous car in a dynamic, ever-changing environment. 

This would also help position the company as a supplier of the underlying software platform to global carmakers, which are looking at crunching time to build and launch their autonomous cars.

“What we’re developing will be useful in many ways for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and suppliers of parts. It will provide them a platform to get more research and development faster than ever,” said Nitin Pai, head, marketing, Tata Elxsi. 

He added, “The grand objective is to be able to offer on a platter to somebody a complete pre-developed autonomous driving framework.”  

Unlike traditional cars, the software in autonomous cars needs to be trained on local driving scenarios, including terrain, signals, road signs and also dynamic changes such as traffic before it is launched in newer markets. 

Tata Elxsi has taken a modular approach to building autonomous vehicles, offering its stack or portions of its stack to other manufacturers and even parts suppliers that are looking to build autonomous vehicles. While Tata Elxsi will steer clear of building sensors, it is co-developing some sensors with manufacturers in order to function properly with its software solution.