{"id":25743,"date":"2016-03-01T13:08:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T07:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.entecity.com\/?p=25743"},"modified":"2016-03-01T18:38:01","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T13:08:01","slug":"driverless-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/driverless-car\/","title":{"rendered":"This man from Trivandrum builds himself a self-driving Tata Nano!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Till recently driverless cars were just a futuristic concept. Thanks to Google and Tesla, driverless cars are now a reality.\u00a0 But these technologies reaching the Indian shores seemed a distant dream to us.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Dr. Roshy John, hailing from Trivandrum, India too has joined the league of self-driving cars. Roshy developed a self-driving Tata Nano car just to show that it can be done at a much lower cost.<\/p>\n

Roshy developed a self-driving Tata Nano car just to show that it can be done at a much lower cost.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What made him think on these lines is a taxi ride at a late hour from airport to his home. Roshy John noticed the driver was driving half asleep and fearing for his safety Roshy had to offer to drive the car. This incident made him think about developing an autonomous car.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.Roshy

Dr.Roshy John<\/p><\/div>\n

Dr.Roshy who is currently working in TCS Kochi, did his studies in Trivandrum and graduated from University College Palayam. Later he did his Ph.D in Robotics from\u00a0NIT, Trichy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took up this project because I thought I had to do something to prevent fatalities in road accidents in Indian roads. To me this is a social commitment I had to make. We already have self-driving cars abroad, none of which is designed for Indian roads.<\/em> \u201csaid Dr.Roshy John.<\/p>\n

Dr. Roshy John started the project towards the end of 2010, by 2012 he had a Nano which ran driverless for the first time. He kept on streamlining and tweaking the system and now in 2016 he has created an advanced model.<\/p>\n

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Self-driving Tata Nano Image: Dr Roshy John.<\/p><\/div>\n

For him, Tata Nano was an ideal choice not because it is the cheapest car but because of its rear engine layout which made possible an array of sensors placed in front. While testing on actual roads, Dr. Roshy and his team used cameras to monitor efficiency and responses of self-driving system. The team is now confident that their system could be incorporated into any vehicle in less than an hour.<\/p>\n

\"Roshy

Dr John and his team wiring the Tata Nano. Image: Dr Roshy John.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Roshy says that there a few challenges if one wants to drive in driverless car in India. In the first place, driving in India is chaotic and unlike in western countries, people often change lanes without warning. People often ignore traffic rules and jaywalking pedestrians are a common sight. Such problems need to solved before an autonomous car can be safely driven on Indian roads.<\/p>\n

\"Test

Test Driving the Tata Nano. Image: Dr Roshy John<\/p><\/div>\n

The problem with the self-driving cars is that it lacks the reasoning power, reflexes and cognitive skills of a human. As time progresses, the machine will learn to acquire these qualities and perfect its performance in due course. Roshy is optimistic that such hindrances will be a thing of the past and he hopes to create more intelligent and environment-friendly driverless cars to run on our roads.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a matter of pride for us Trivandrumites that Dr.Roshy has successfully created India\u2019s own\u00a0self-driving car with his ingenuity and creativity, that too at a cost way less than that of other big companies.<\/p>\n

You can watch the video of his self-driving Tata Nano here<\/h4>\n