In India, TCS has tested the cloud-based self-driving vehicle platform using 3 lac kilometers of real-time data. Thus TCS algorithms are trained and tested with 3 lac kilometres of real-time vehicle data. The testing was across the geographies — the US, Japan, Europe and India. Testing in India was restricted to a few thousand kilometres. The other companies of the Tata Group working in this technology space are Tata Technologies and Tata Elxsi. These companies work with leading OEMs.

The self-driving cars have several levels. At level 1, there are around five sensors to collect information to be processed in real time. At level 2, the number of sensors rise to 15. At level 3, there are 25 sensors indicating a higher level of sophistication. A fully-automated car has 40 sensors. The levels are way to monetise the cars for the OEMs. The cars are treated as a digital product. The customers pay for the applications they want.

TCS has tested cars in daylight, and creates night time virtual data through simulation to save costs.

India’s self-driving cars are at level plus 2 stage. Some such vehicles are on the road. It will take us some time to reach level 3, and more time to reach autonomous level 4.

As many more players enter the market, there will be a market for data and data monetization. The autonomous vehicles will not have multiple electronic controllers to handle a vehicle’s function. Instead, it will have just one or two controllers with a lot of computing power.