AIMPL develops India’s first AIoT-enabled autonomous car

Autonomous Intelligence Motors Private Limited (AIMPL), an automobile-as-a-service company has announced that it has developed the country’s first Artificial Intelligence-of-things (AIoT) powered autonomous hatchback car. To be available in multiple powertrain options, the homegrown startup will be rolling out the driverless hatchback’s petrol version by March 2022 followed by its diesel and electric versions in the coming months.  

The price points and other technical specifications of the car are yet to be shared. The company will also be coming up with other body derivatives like sedan and SUV in the medium term.  

“I had successfully tested my AIoT powered autonomous car prototype in 2014 in IIT-B (as a student). This was the defining moment in my career, and I decided to go in for robust backward integration and indigenise my product to suit Indian road conditions,” said Kushal Tanaji Shilimkar, founder and an IIT-Bombay alumnus.  

Designed and developed by automobile engineer Nikhil Bagal and other team members of AIMPL, the vehicle’s prototype version is being given final touch with finer details on the hardware and software carried out at Bhiwandi, Thane in Maharashtra.   

While talking about its upcoming model, Shimilkar maintains, “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.”  

“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, etc. AIM’s AI-based automobile sensors can perform object identification of innumerable obstacles,” the company said in a statement.