IIIT Hyderabad working on components of driverless car

Though the goal is a driverless car, the research into the subject would help understand many other things: IIIT-H director

The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) is working on components of driverless car technologies.

"We are actually working on components of driverless car. We are not hoping that the car will be running on Hyderabad roads without a driver," IIIT-H director P J Narayanan told reporters.

"But it is a problem that practically every good group in the world is working. It poses several academic challenges," he said.

Though the goal is a driverless car, the research into the subject would help understand many other things, he said.

"Driverless car, that's our goal. It's not easy to have a driverless car on Indian roads... But, the purpose is you develop technologies for it, you learn a lot for other things.

"Instead of driverless car, how can you make our car safer. How can you help our drivers with automatic help...," he said.

The institute is working on a project for providing data on the condition of roads in Hyderabad to the government agencies, Narayanan said.

Under the project, a car fitted with cameras is proposed to be sent on the roads and the cameras would capture images on the condition of roads.

"...Just send a car with a video. Not driverless. Somebody driving it. And the car will record the video and at the back end information algorithms will detect where are the problem points. This information will help GHMC (Hyderabad civic body) or government to collect," he said.

The institute runs a car with the technology within its campus under controlled conditions as part of its research, he said.