IIT-B Alumnus Develops India's First AIoT-Powered Autonomous Hatchback Car, To Hit Indian Roads By March 2022

What looked like science fiction only a few decades ago now will soon be a reality as Mumbai-based automobile-as-a-service company Autonomous Intelligence Motors Private Limited (AIMPL) is all geared up to hit the Indian roads with its path-breaking artificial intelligence-of-things (AIoT) powered autonomous hatchback car. The company will launch its ultramodern about crewless or driverless petrol and diesel hatchback variants in March 2022.

Founded in 2020 by IIT-Bombay alumnus Kushal Tanaji Shilimkar, AIMPL is a full-stack driverless automobile company that aims to unlock the future of India’s AIoT-powered autonomous mobility.

From AI to robotics, AIMPL is a classic case study on how the automobile startup pivoted to revolutionize safe and sustainable autonomous transportation and mobility solutions to provide a resilient impetus to unlock the future of clean mobility.

The launch of AIMPL’s first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence-of-things (AIoT) powered driverless hatchback car will mark a significant milestone for India’s autonomous driving industry next year. It will be a symbol of the country’s first-ever product-ready AI-powered variant fitted with BS8-compliant engines (for both petrol and diesel variants), besides electric vehicles (EVs). 

The fully autonomous cars will have highly optimized cutting-edge hardware platforms with integrated custom sensors, cameras and radars. Its perception system will use data sensed from multiple sensors and algorithms fitted in the car, which will indicate road curvatures, potholes, routes, lanes. 

AIM’s AI-based automobile sensors can perform object identification of innumerable obstacles, including emergency diversion, roadblocks, Snarled-up traffic, foggy weather conditions, heavy rainfall, flocks of scooters whizzing around cars, taxis veering off into lanes, autorickshaws abruptly halting in the middle of the street and hand-pulled carts creating congestion along the ring roads. The sensors will allow the crewless vehicle to instantly identify the actual situation and cover a distance of roughly 500 meters, thereby enabling a wide range of driving scenarios at even greater speed.

The startup seeds were sown back in 2014 when third-year Computer Technology student Shilimkar from Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering, Khargar, Navi Mumbai, won great compliments and rave reviews in the National Robotics Championship (NRC) held in IIT-Bombay, where he showcased his cutting-edge breakthrough. He was a national finalist in the NRC in Computer Technology to showcase his autonomous technology. 

By using a working prototype, techno-hungry Shilimkar tested his AI-powered autonomous vehicle in a controlled environment at the NRC, where all basic road scenarios were artificially created to assess the efficacy of its pedestrian control system collision avoidance system, drive-by-automation technology, perception module software, and vehicle Odometry. 

 “It was in 2019 when my entrepreneurial journey took a turn for the better. I was gobsmacked to encounter a media report one morning, in which American entrepreneur Elon Musk was quoted with his tall claims that Tesla is the only company in the world to launch autonomous vehicles capable of L5 autonomy by the end of 2021. It was quite absurd and Ironical to read such exaggerated assertions as I had proved it way back in 2014 that I was ahead of the game and successfully tested my AIoT powered autonomous car prototype in 2014 in IIT-B. This was the defining moment in my career, and I decided to go in for robust backward integration and indigenize my product to suit Indian road conditions,” said Shilimkar.  

“It’s a matter of a couple of months before our driverless cars take everyone to work. I am confident that we’ll see a broad acceptance for fully autonomous vehicles, said Mr. Shilimkar.  

"Going entirely driverless is a key to accomplishing complete autonomy in driving and bringing to fruition our ambitious vision of engineering mobility with autonomous spirit, said Mr. Shilimkar.

“We are currently developing safe and reliable autonomous driving technology for the Indian consumer. Having accumulated several thousands of kilometers in autonomous road testing in complex scenarios, we have built a robust foundation to deliver driverless driving systems at par with global standards,” he said.

As a next-generation AIoT-powered autonomous automobile player, AIM has digital technologies, such as AI, voice control, and IoT features to make driverless driving more intelligent and safe. It has a full-bodied safety navigation system and driver assistance technology that will use the Google Map algorithm to analyze traffic data in real-time.

“Our vehicles would be 50 percent dependent on Google Maps and rest on our sensors. This feature will help us avoid the risk of total reliance on Google Maps, as sometimes tiny details are unavailable due to glitches,” said Mr. Shilimkar.

“As we are an inch closer to achieving our objective to launch our indigenously built next-generation autonomous vehicles, AIM is striving to make sure nobody in India is left behind to avail benefits of our ground-breaking ‘AIoT-autonomous’ technology.

ABOUT AUTONOMOUS INTELLIGENCE MOTORS PRIVATE LIMITED

Autonomous Intelligence Motors Private Limited (AIM) is a Mumbai-based automobile-as-a-service company, which aims to foster sustainable, safe, and accessible mobility in India. 

Founded in 2020 by IIT-Bombay alumnus Kushal Tanaji Shilimkar, full-stack driverless automobile company AIMPL aims to unlock the future of AIoT-powered autonomous mobility and augment India’s mobility system.

For the past several years, Shilimkar and his team have been exploring possibilities to create AI-powered autonomous vehicles capable of sensing the environment, measuring distance, detecting road edges, identifying lanes, and operating without human involvement, using sensory inputs.

The company has harnessed deep industry experience in its mission to develop driverless technology. It has been established as an innovator of AI-powered autonomous mobility technology, making India a frontrunner in the global race of self-driving.

AIMPL ‘s team of interdisciplinary data scientists, ML, AI experts, and experienced software developers collectively offers skill sets that allow the company to engineer autonomous technology with data-driven insights and overwhelming safety experience.  

MANAGEMENT

MR. KUSHAL TANAJI SHILIMKAR, FOUNDER & CEO, AUTONOMOUS INTELLIGENCE MOTORS PRIVATE LIMITED  

AIMPL was founded in 2020 by IIT-Bombay alumnus Kushal Tanaji Shilimkar. The full-stack driverless automobile company was formed to unlock the future of AIoT-powered autonomous mobility and augment India’s mobility system.

 Shilimkar graduated from IIT-Bombay in 2016 with a B.Tech degree in Computer Technology. He also holds a diploma in Computer Technology from Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering, Khargar, Navi Mumbai. 

 In 2016, he started a bespoke digital marketing company—Vishranti Infotech in Mumbai. In 2018, he was adjudged among the top-500 CEOs of India by INDIA 5000.