Bhopal-Based Startup’s Self-Driven Mahindra Bolero SUV Has Anand Mahindra’s Attention

With significant advancements in computing, communication, and automotive technology, we are nearing the era of autonomous cars. Autonomous cars have attained exceptional growth in the automotive industry in terms of safety, reliability, and affordability. In a bid to create something similar, a Bhopal-based startup has captured widespread attention. The video of the innovation went viral like wildfire, and it even earned recognition from Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra.

In the now-viral video, it is visible that a modified Bolero SUV equipped with self-driving capabilities is manoeuvring through bustling streets without manual steering. The video also delves into how the Mahindra Bolero underwent significant modifications essential for autonomous driving. As the video progresses, the SUV adeptly navigates through various obstacles, including pedestrian-filled areas, an empty street, police barricades, parked cars, and even one with very heavy traffic without any defaults.

Anand Mahindra shared the video on social media platform X along with the caption, “Evidence of tech innovation rising across India. An engineer who’s not building yet another delivery app. Sanjeev is using complex math to target level 5 autonomy. I’m cheering loudly. And certainly, won’t debate his choice of car!”

Expressing his happiness over the worldwide recognition of his efforts as Anand Mahindra shared the clip, Sanjeev Sharma wrote, “I am humbled to know that my years of mathematical research in motion planning, decision making under uncertainty, and reinforcement learning, and our cutting-edge pioneering research at Swaayatt Robot and Deep Eigen in enabling autonomous vehicles to negotiate extremely complex, adversarial traffic dynamics and unstructured environments and stochastic, is being recognised, and that too by Mr. Anand Mahindra!!”

“Thank you so much for both recognising our R&D and for sharing it with the world!! It will further motivate us to do even better. PS: We have autonomous thar as well,” he concluded.

Needless to say, the self-driving Bolero SUV post has amassed more than 912,000 views, and it has been reshared by over 2,000 people. Social media users couldn’t help but praise the unique invention. Some dubbed the genius mind as ‘brilliant’, while there were others who commended his efforts and said that his idea was sheer algorithmic brilliance.

A user commented, “Man!! An autonomous driverless car tested on Indian roads amidst Indian traffic conditions, that’s the ultimate used case test that can ever be.”

“Mahindra… The name says it is possible,” expressed another user.

Another individual chimed in, saying, “Happy that Sanjeev’s efforts got noticed.”

“Stunning innovation!! Thanks for sharing,” posted a user.

Another remarked, “It’s really commendable, and particularly so because they have used non-automatic gear vehicles.”

“Having worked in this area for quite some time, I must say this is brilliant!! It will take 400 plus years for anyone to collect real test drive data that mimics all possible scenarios statistically. This is sheer algorithmic brilliance and high-quality data collection (with love).”

What do you think about this innovative idea?