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Driverless SUV evades cow, dog, cycles on Bhopal road in viral video: 'Absolute chaos'
Bhopal-based startup Swaayatt Robots demonstrated autonomous driving technology using a Mahindra Bolero converted into a driverless SUV.
A video of an SUV navigating crowded streets in Bhopal using autonomous driving technology is being widely shared on the internet, impressing social media users.
A Bhopal-based startup, Swaayatt Robots, conducted the demonstration last month using a Mahindra Bolero, modifying it into a driverless SUV.
The 6:38-minute shows the vehicle manoeuvring pedestrians, vehicles coming from the opposite direction, a dog and even a cow.
The demo was done on a very narrow, unpredictable road which is primarily suited for one-way traffic, push-carts lined on the sides of the narrow road and cyclists.
"This kind of traffic and environment has never been attempted in the history of autonomous driving," Swaayatt Robots wrote on its YouTube channel.
Watch the video here:
“Autonomous driving through extremely-tight-dynamic environments with complex, stochastic, and adversarial traffic-dynamics, or simply through an absolute chaos, on sub-urban unstructured roads in India,” the company said.
The video had impressed Mahindra group chairman Anand Mahindra who lauded the startup for the efforts, calling it an "evidence of tech innovation".
"Evidence of tech innovation rising across India. An engineer who’s not building yet another delivery app. @sanjeevs_iitr is using complex math to target level 5 autonomy. I’m cheering loudly. And certainly won’t debate his choice of car," Mahindra wrote on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this month, tagging Sanjeev Sharma, founder and CEO of Swaayatt Robots.
Sharma, an IIT Roorkee graduate, said the video that became viral is of the startup's 83rd demo on the roads in India.
“…our August 2024 demo will change the way autonomous driving is perceived globally,” he said in a post on X.
The company has posted several other videos of its vehicle attempting autonomous driving in various conditions such as dense fog, crossing a toll gate, night-time autonomous driving and high-speed off-roading.
Swaayatt Robots raised $3 million in seed investment from US-based investors in 2021.
