There is a shift in the mobility world with shared mobility, connected cars and electric vehicles, which calls for innovative ideas, CV Raman, CTO, Maruti Suzuki India, has said.
Participating at an event to announce AUTONOM India 2021, an initiative by SAENIS (Society of Automotive Engineers Northern India Section) in association with Mobility Outlook, Raman said that 30% of people in India do not travel at all, 25% travel by foot, 18% by public transport, 13% by bicycles, 12% by two-wheelers and only 3% of the population move on four-wheelers. Therefore, India needs unique solutions, and the students can think, ideate and look at new ideas on future vehicles.
About 75% of the vehicle parc is two-wheelers, and 15% is four-wheelers; on the contrary, 95% is four-wheelers in Europe, and the rest is recreational two-wheelers, Raman said. The huge differential is due to India’s per capita income and affordability, which will also call for bespoke autonomous technologies to contain accidents. AUTONOM India, India’s biggest futuristic mobility student competition, will help bring required solutions for India to address the concerns, he added.
Addressing the delegates, Jayanta Deb, Chief Technology Officer, MG Motors India said only technology can bring back order in the routine way of travelling on the roads. AI plays a significant role in safeguarding vehicle users and other road users, eventually making the quality vehicle a hygiene factor. However, making a new vehicle programme suitable for the country is more complicated, and the engineers involved have to understand physical conditions and technology. AUTONOM India will help students and engineers to work on new technologies to carry forward and address these essential requirements, he said.
Dr Tapan Sahoo, Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki India, said autonomous/ADAS technologies can help India solve many issues concerning safe transportation, congestion etc. Students have the brightest minds, and they can solve the problems of today and the future generations.
The impact on traffic safety will be the greatest legacy on the autonomous car since accidents involving cars are the leading cause for deaths globally, with 95% due to human error, Vivek Jakhmola, President, JBM Group, said. Therefore, eliminating human error is an essential ingredient, and the emerging technologies will enable the autonomous cars’ overall behaviour on the roads better, while also creating value for the entire supply chain. He asked the students to be passionate about developing new technologies and take it as a challenge to create something that will be remembered forever.
Speaking about the human brain, Dinesh Tyagi, Chairman, SAENIS and Director, ICAT said the world’s fourth-fastest supercomputer – K-computer took 40 minutes to crunch the calculations for a single second of the human brain’s activity. He asked the students to keep this aspect in mind and endeavour to come out with safe, efficient, fast and robust solutions under various conditions of driving, traffic and emergency.
Dr Madhusudan Joshi from ICAT, announcing AUTONOM India 2021, said over 200 colleges across India have agreed to participate, with over 700 registrations and about 600 faculty members being part of the event. The simplicity of design, applicability to Indian conditions, cost-effectiveness and coverage, will be the criteria to choose the winners.
About The Event
Sharing details of AUTONOM India 2021, S Ramanathan, Vice Chairman – Technical, SAENIS and Managing Director, ATS, said the event will be virtual this year using the IPG carmaker simulation tool. The event's objectives include:
- To generate a minimum of 10 different typical unsafe Indian driving scenarios with all relevant driving objects.
- To generate 10 edge cases that are difficult for a conventional ADAS system to function in Indian driving conditions.
- To create an application of the most relevant ADAS sensors to ensure object detection, collision warning/avoidance in the identified unsafe driving scenarios.
The jury will provide the participants with a common EV model, and the focus will be on sensor development, writing algorithms, scenario generation, and the concept will work in these Indian scenarios.
There will be four rounds in the competition – scenario generation, first elimination, second elimination and the finals. The top three teams will be selected based on the interviews with the juries. Awards would be given out for the Best Sensor Model, Out of the Box Approach and Innovativeness and Optimal use of the Sensor Model. Ramanathan also elaborated on the event milestones.