Udacity partners with MapmyIndia to strengthen the self driving ecosystem in India

India is a huge market when it comes to self driving cars and automation. In order to promote innovation and research in the spectrum of vehicular engineering, the Indian government has proposed an amendment to the motor vehicles act, which when passed will permit testing of self driving cars on Indian roads. This clearly shows that both the public and private sector are equally excited about this new disruption and therefore this opens up a plethora of opportunities for self driving car engineers within the country.

It is also globally believed that Indian roads provide the best testing grounds for self driving technology than other developed nations, as lane discipline and traffic movement is wildly erratic in the country, thereby providing more data to autonomous vehicle sensors. Also, with intelligent technology in the seat, it is also possible to reduce fatal road accidents over time. Therefore, in these exhilarating times, the partnership between Udacity and MapmyIndia is a step towards consolidating the ecosystem and building pace for rapid and sustained growth.

Commenting on the partnership, Ishan Gupta, MD India, Udacity, said, “ We are extremely excited to be the first edu-tech company to have launched the self driving nanodegree on a global platform. Our courses on AI, self driving and machine learning are an initiative towards creating a robust workforce for dynamic job roles.”

He added, “According to reports, 10 mn self driving cars will be on roads by 2020, which clearly shows that demand by automakers, startups and technology companies for self driving car engineers is extremely high. As one of the early movers in fueling this revolution, our partnership with MapmyIndia is a sincere effort to accelerate innovation in this ecosystem and provide a wide spectrum of opportunities for students in India.”

Udacity provides a platform for a nine months online programme in self driving, where students will work on interactive projects in computer vision and robotic controls, as well as other software development skills that are required to build and develop the self-driving car technology. MapmyIndia has been investing in developing cutting edge technology to fuel maps which can power self-driving cars, of smart cities and states and smart businesses. The partnership will provide wide career opportunities for students who take up this course and will help them solve real life job challenges.

Commenting on the same, Rohan Verma, Executive Director and CTO, MapmyIndia, said “MapmyIndia’s mission is to make the world better through maps and location technologies. We own 80% market share in the automotive maps, navigation, telematics and advanced driving assistance systems space, with 14 car manufacturers and more than 40 car models currently powered by MapmyIndia, and 2000+ enterprise customers who use our GPS solutions to their vehicle fleets. 1.5 years ago we announced our bold initiative to build a map so advanced it can power super-safe self-driving cars using our stack of maps, software and sensors, and we introduced our revolutionary RealView service which captures, recognizes and published the real world in photo-realistic clarity in full 360 degree and 3D. We believe the time is right to take the next step of bringing suitable safety-first self-driving technology to vehicles, road infrastructure and cities in India. We’re excited to support our customers, work closely with the ecosystem, and recruit talented specialists from Udacity’s Self Driving Nanodegree program, who believe in our mission and want to accelerate the positive transformation of the vehicle and transportation industries in India, to make Indian roads safer, and lives of road commuters traffic-free, and the Indian transportation industry highly efficient”