TiHAN IIT Hyderabad Deploys Driverless Electric Shuttles On Campus

These shuttles were developed from scratch as part of the autonomous mobility research conducted by the TiHAN (Technology innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation) centre

Driverless cars have been a buzzword since Tesla debuted the hands-free driving capabilities of its electric cars in the USA, with many other global brands also working on the same. In India too, various carmakers and tech start-ups are working on developing their own autonomous driving technologies for various benefits.

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Among them is IIT Hyderabad, where the university’s TiHAN centre has made a couple of driverless electric shuttles. They use LiDAR-based navigation and are fitted with GPS which can be used to summon them with a mobile app. Currently, they are used inside the campus by students and faculty members for transportation. These electric shuttles will prove to be viable for collecting data on driverless cars in the future.

Leading The Research Into Driverless Possibilities

TiHAN IIT Hyderabad is one of the leading centres for developing autonomous mobility tech in the country. It even has a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NATRAX (National Automotive Test Tracks) to collaborate in the areas of autonomous navigation testing facilities and related upskilling of human resources.

Why Is Autonomous Driving Technology Important?

There are two main reasons for developing driverless technology: convenience and improved safety. Let’s talk about the former. Commuting is one of the major chores of urban life, made more tiring by the amount of traffic. Autonomous driving capabilities will free people from that chore and allow their commute to be more productive and or restfull. It will also reduce dependency for those who don’t know how to drive, like kids or old people in your family.

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The second reason is safety, or to be more clear, the reasoning that driverless cars will help in reducing accidents. These cars will use driver assistance features like ADAS, which have already started helping in the prevention of accidents. If more and more driverless cars are on the roads, they will be able to communicate with each other for better coordinated driving and will make a big impact on safety and reducing the number of incidents, once the technology is fully developed.

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The Indian roadways present a longer list of challenges to autonomous driving technology than some others, but we are already starting to see some benefits of such features. More mass-market cars are now being offered with ADAS to improve safety and offer increased convenience while driving on expressways. While autonomous tech may not replace driving entirely, it’s only a matter of time till it gets implemented for the overall benefit of all stakeholders in the relevant use cases. In order for that to happen, the real-world data collected over time by various brands and research centres will be useful for effective implementation.