Swaayatt Robots modified a Mahindra Bolero SUV with self-driving functionality, following which a was carried out on the streets of Bhopal. (Image: @sanjeevs_iitr
/X)
Swaayatt Robots founder and CEO Sanjeev Sharma mentioned his startup has demonstrated a know-how prepared to navigate Indian streets and, with extra funding and sources, it might probably obtain the automation objective quickly
Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra not too long ago shared a video on social media of a modified Bolero SUV with self-driving functionality, navigating the busy Bhopal streets. The individual behind the transformation, Sanjeev Sharma of Swaayatt Robots mentioned he had demonstrated a know-how prepared to navigate Indian streets.
Evidence of tech innovation rising throughout India. An engineer who’s not constructing yet one more supply app. @sanjeevs_iitr is utilizing advanced math to goal stage 5 autonomy.
I’m cheering loudly.
And definitely gained’t debate his alternative of automobile! pic.twitter.com/luyJXAkQap
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) April 2, 2024
In an interview to News18, he mentioned his startup is a competitor to Elon Musk’s Tesla. While most consultants say that totally autonomous vehicles are nonetheless 10 years away, together with Tesla, Sharma mentioned with funding and sources, his startup can obtain this objective quickly.
“What we are demonstrating is a tech ready to navigate the traffic of India with utmost accuracy. We are already a competitor of Tesla. Give us some more funding and resources and we can literally solve the automation problem by the end of the year,” mentioned Sharma, who’s the CEO and founding father of Swaayatt Robots.
Sharma defined the way it all started and the way his firm turned a viable contender to Tesla. Recalling his IIT Roorkee days, he mentioned his journey started when he got here throughout some movies by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the DARPA Urban Challenge, which ignited his ardour for exploring the complexities of autonomous driving in dynamic visitors environments.
Over the years, Sharma constructed a robust mathematical basis to have the ability to develop the autonomous driving know-how that social media customers noticed within the viral video. Not solely IIT Roorkee, he frolicked in Israel as a analysis assistant professor, spent a tenure on the University of Alberta in laptop science, and was a analysis assistant to Professor Richard S Sutton, who is taken into account the godfather of reinforcement studying.
Sharma based Swaayatt Robots in 2015, after he returned to India in 2014. He marked the formalisation of his aspirations, initially propelled by a modest funding of his personal funds. Over the years, he mentioned, the crew meticulously polished its know-how by analysis and testing, clocking over a number of demos on Indian roads.
The current Bolero testing close to Kankali Kali Mata temple in Bhopal was their eightieth try. “At the heart of Swaayatt Robots lies a commitment to fundamental research and development,” he mentioned, including, “we’ve pioneered advancements in artificial intelligence, mathematics, and theoretical computer science, leveraging reinforcement learning to redefine autonomous navigation.”
A cornerstone achievement of Swaayatt Robots lies of their profitable integration of autonomous know-how into a various vary of automobiles, notably the Mahindra Bolero SUV, Sharma mentioned.
“By automating the Bolero, we’ve demonstrated the universality of our technology,” he mentioned, whereas highlighting the truth that “this underscores our capability to automate any vehicle on the planet. And, if we can run an automated car in India, then we can run it anywhere”.
Sharma mentioned by way of off-street and on-street driving, navigating the trail, avoiding excessive-pace visitors in addition to animals on the street, and impediment avoidance at excessive pace, Swaayatt Robots is able to doing all this.
“In certain areas, we are not just competing but leading… And people can look into all our off-road autonomous driving demos. They can compare it with the Kodiak Robotics demo, or the RACER program,” he mentioned.
“We are doing both on and off-road. There is no company, any startup, that can manage both on and off-road and we have done it in just $3 million funding that we received in 2021,” he added.
But, when it comes to extra improvement and commercialisation of this know-how, Sharma mentioned taking the subsequent step will want extra funding. “At present, additional funding is the key barrier to scaling up our technology. With an investment of around $15 million, we will be able to expand our presence and accelerate the development of our autonomous navigation solutions,” he mentioned.
