Kerala entrepreneur builds and tests driverless Toyota Innova Crysta powered by AI [Video]

The cars available in the Indian market are technologically advanced. We now have features like ADAS even in sub-4 meter SUVs. The technology has become a lot more accessible to customers. This driver assistance system is meant to make the driver’s life a lot easier on the road. It has nothing to do with autonomous driving. In other countries like the USA, there are companies that have already started using autonomous driving or driverless vehicles. Fleet operators like Uber have driverless cars in some parts of the USA. Here in India, we have a young entrepreneur who has been working on driverless cars for years now.

The video was shared by Manorama News on their YouTube channel. Roshy John, an entrepreneur from Kerala and a specialist in robotics technology, is the man behind this creation. He runs a company named RoshAi in Kerala and has been working on a driverless car model for years. It was actually an incident that happened to him in his personal life that led him to think about this project. Once, Roshy was returning from South Korea to Bengaluru. When he reached the airport, he took a taxi to his home. It was around 2 am, and the driver was actually tired.

The driver was so tired that he was dozing off while driving the car. He almost hit the car on a divider. Roshy asked the driver to stop the vehicle and get out to sit in the co-passenger seat. Roshy then took control of the steering and drove the car home. It was at this point when he thought about the idea of a driverless car, where a person doesn’t have to rely on someone else to get home safely.

Roshy and his team started working on this artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and they have come a long way. They have executed this artificial intelligence (AI) technology on a vehicle and are currently conducting tests in a controlled environment. Roshy and his team first implemented this technology in a Tata Nano. After testing it on the Nano for some time, they upgraded it to a Toyota Innova. The car is currently being tested on the roads of Infopark in Kochi. The system works using a combination of a 360-degree camera, radars, and sensors around the car. These instruments detect obstacles in front of the car and respond accordingly.

The system in the car is programmed with AI codes to behave differently in different situations. The Toyota Innova Crysta seen here is just a prototype and is far from production. Roshy also talks about the rules and regulations that are currently missing for such cars. Once the government, insurance agencies, and other regulatory bodies approve of this vehicle and consider it roadworthy, they can move to the next step where they can fine-tune things to make it suitable for road use. Currently in India, there is no clarity on who would be responsible if a driverless car is involved in a crash. This initiative is definitely a great step forward, and we hope that the government takes note of this and approves it in the future.