ROBOTICS
Chaotic Indian roads challenge designers of driverless cars
Designers have to account for pedestrians darting through traffic at will, multiple lanes that merge without warning, poor signage and stray cattle lingering on the roadside
At a secret testing track outside Bangalore, an arm of the Tata conglomerate is recreating the jumble of Indian roads to develop an autonomous driving system. That means accounting for pedestrians darting through traffic at will, multiple lanes that merge without warning, poor signage and stray cattle lingering on the roadside. India’s push into the driverless race is being driven by conglomerates such as the Tata and Mahindra groups with a slew of start-ups and engineering schools that are taking on global giants in an industry that Intel projects will spur $7-trillion of spending by 2050. The country, forecast to soon be the world’s third-largest car market, is loath to be left behind even as its chaotic roads and regulations create unique hurdles. "Indian roads present a true deep learning challenge," says Roshy John, a 17-year veteran in the field of robotics who heads that business at Asia’s largest information technology services provider Tata Consultancy Services. John’s inno...
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