Swaayatt Robots modified a Mahindra Bolero SUV with self-driving functionality, following which a was carried out on the streets of Bhopal. (Picture: @sanjeevs_iitr
/X)
Swaayatt Robots founder and CEO Sanjeev Sharma stated his startup has demonstrated a know-how able to navigate Indian streets and, with extra funding and assets, it may well obtain the automation aim quickly
Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra lately 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 stated he had demonstrated a know-how able to navigate Indian streets.
Proof of tech innovation rising throughout India. An engineer who’s not constructing one more supply app. @sanjeevs_iitr is utilizing complicated math to focus on 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 stated his startup is a competitor to Elon Musk’s Tesla. Whereas most specialists say that absolutely autonomous automobiles are nonetheless 10 years away, together with Tesla, Sharma stated with funding and assets, his startup can obtain this aim quickly.
“What we’re demonstrating is a tech able to navigate the visitors of India with utmost accuracy. We’re already a competitor of Tesla. Give us some extra funding and assets and we will actually remedy the automation downside by the tip of the 12 months,” stated Sharma, who’s the CEO and founding father of Swaayatt Robots.
Sharma defined the way it all started and the way his firm grew to become a viable contender to Tesla. Recalling his IIT Roorkee days, he stated his journey started when he got here throughout some movies by the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise (MIT) for the DARPA City Problem, which ignited his ardour for exploring the complexities of autonomous driving in dynamic visitors environments.
Through the years, Sharma constructed a powerful 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 College 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. Through the years, he stated, the workforce meticulously polished its know-how via 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. “On the coronary heart of Swaayatt Robots lies a dedication to basic analysis and growth,” he stated, including, “we’ve pioneered developments in synthetic intelligence, arithmetic, and theoretical laptop science, leveraging reinforcement studying 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 stated.
“By automating the Bolero, we’ve demonstrated the universality of our know-how,” he stated, whereas highlighting the truth that “this underscores {our capability} to automate any automobile on the planet. And, if we will run an automatic automobile in India, then we will run it wherever”.
Sharma stated by way of off-road and on-road driving, navigating the trail, avoiding high-speed visitors in addition to animals on the street, and impediment avoidance at excessive velocity, Swaayatt Robots is able to doing all this.
“In sure areas, we aren’t simply competing however main… And folks can look into all our off-road autonomous driving demos. They will examine it with the Kodiak Robotics demo, or the RACER program,” he stated.
“We’re doing each on and off-road. There isn’t a firm, any startup, that may handle each on and off-road and we now have finished it in simply $3 million funding that we acquired in 2021,” he added.
However, in relation to extra growth and commercialisation of this know-how, Sharma stated taking the following step will want extra funding. “At current, extra funding is the important thing barrier to scaling up our know-how. With an funding of round $15 million, we will develop our presence and speed up the event of our autonomous navigation options,” he stated.
