Zero, which raised $1.7 million in seed funding from a group of investors led by Chiratae Ventures, launched a software in March 2022 to help Indian automakers develop advanced driverless assistance (ADAS) capabilities.
ADA was introduced to help improve vehicle safety and safety on the road, helping drivers to park, lane inspection and braking, etc. Senior company officials said the startup has provided autonomous driving systems to automakers such as Ashok Leyland Ltd and Tata Motors Ltd.
A policy-driven pivot
With the government announcing that India will not be heading towards driverless cars, this means the country’s market for fully autonomous cars lacks markets.
“The lack of a market for fully autonomous vehicles in the near future in the past two years, especially the union cabinet minister has hinted that India will not have no autonomous driving methods on the road in the foreseeable future, which means we have to huddle,” Gagandeep Reehal, co-founder and co-founder, Minus Zero, Minus Zero, Minus Zero, Minus Zero, Minus Zero, Minus Zero, Minus Zero, Minus Zero, Minus Zero, Minus Zero, Minus Zero, Minus Zero Mint.
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In December 2023, Road Transport and Highway Nitin Gadkari said that India will not allow driverless cars to protect drivers’ work.
ADA’s Indian-specific AI
Speech Mint Reehal said before launching the software platform that the plan is part of a long-term product strategy driven by industry demand and government strategies.
“When we started working on making fully autonomous vehicles, we were one of many startups around the world looking to build Tesla alternatives around the world,” Rehaal said. “Today, Waymo is the only one worth noting among all-sale drive startups, and it’s also in limited areas just because Google supports it.”
The company claims to have developed the platform after being tested in Bangalore after dense urban traffic, helping it get used to the unique nature of Indian roads.
“Over the past 18 months, we are working with Arai (Indian Automotive Research Association) to collect real-world test data on highways to build AI models based entirely on India’s environment and particularity,” Reehal said.
For example, the company is trying to measure how to map traffic on unmarked roads, or without very slow, unorganized traffic.
ADAS growth and challenges
Since its introduction to the Indian market, advanced driver assistance systems have gained prominence. In 2021, India’s fourth largest automaker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd’s XUV700 became the first sports car (SUV) in the country to provide consumers with ADAS systems.
Since then, Hyundai Motor India Ltd and Tata Motor Ltd have also introduced ADAS systems in their cars. Through sensors and cameras, the driver gets alerts and help on the brakes and lanes on the road.
ADAS is a packaging electronics technology designed to reduce human error in vehicles, and it is the main cause of road accidents by providing drivers with timely information and active help.
However, the main challenge for the country’s automakers is to make the technology work on Indian roads. Although developed countries such as the United States have examples of fully automatic cars such as Waymo and Tesla, the country lags far behind.
Some evidence shows it is growing. Hyundai’s fiscal 25 sales included about 14% of ADAS cars, up 7% a year ago.
But, as highlighted by some automakers, the problem is the random nature of Indian roads.
Future prospects and funds
“The nature of transportation in India is completely different. Although some players think we can apply many Chinese market specifications here, the country is unpredictable,” said a senior director of the top European automaker. “At present, you can’t introduce ADA without a biased departure switch. It was very important to build ADAS systems in the country at the time.”
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The ADAS system levels range from level 0 (no automation) to level 5 (full automation). The development of the Indian market is mainly concentrated in Level 2 and Level 3.
Major automakers are said to be studying ADAS advancements in the Indian market to enhance operations. Mercedes-Benz India is one of them.
Santosh Iyer, Managing Director and CEO of Mercedes Benz India, said: “We are investing a lot of time and effort to analyze customer feedback on ADA’s functions in Indian road conditions. Some specific advancements and adaptations in the R&D area of Mercedes Benz Benz Research and Development Institute in India are already underway.
Pilot running on Indian road
Subtracting zeros are already underway in a pilot project co-designed with Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and “one of the top three automotive groups in Europe” to test the platform of its cars – to be released in 2027 or 2028. This was around the same time, when Zero Project was stable and stable, the yearly reappeared.
A senior industry executive familiar with the matter told MINT that a large part of the claim is based on using visual AI models to form virtual queues of cars, which in turn helps the vehicle understand the proximity between objects in its surroundings.
“For example, if you are in Chandni Chowk in Delhi, the minimum safe distance you can keep is very different from the mountain non-highway leading to Agra. For Yamuna highway leading to Agra. For those Indian roads that are mainly unorganized and unmarked, there is a barrier and a barrier-free capacity and a business to exercise is identified.
Commercial feasibility
Reehal quantifies this, saying the scope of business can sell 100,000 units per year by deploying ADAS functionality in one variant of a best-selling car.
“It will be a conservative estimate, but just as the current project turns into a commercial deal, we are trying to generate revenue over the next two years,” Rehaal said.
He is currently in San Francisco, California, pursuing a round of private equity or venture capital funds for the startup. The startup has raised a “small” bridge after the startup has had $1.7 million seed funding over the past 12 months – a valuation or capital that Rehaal doesn’t want to disclose.
Reehal added that he hopes that once commercial contracts start to incorporate, the pricing of his ADAS software products will be further diversified. “We are offering platforms as well as integrated hardware such as cameras and sensors, or in stripped software versions alone, each car is priced at $900-2,000,” he added.
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The industry executive had agreed with the forecast, adding that the current price is consistent with modern ADAS capabilities.
“In the near future, as ADA’s capabilities also drip into the budget sector, pricing will certainly drop. Automotive regulators (ARAI) will also help spread ADA as an important safety feature, and for this feature, data and context in India must be done through specially built AI models.”
