We’ve already seen the advent of self-driving and connected mobility technologies across the globe, but India still seems to be at the starting point. To further encourage aspiring students and professionals to jump ship and join this upcoming vehicular revolution in the country, MapmyIndia is joining hands with self-learning education platform Udacity.
For those unaware, Udacity has launched a spectacular self-driving nanodegree in partnership with industry experts such as Nvidia, Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Didi Chuxing, and self-driving truck startup Otto(now owned by Uber). It provides those interested an interactive platform for learning computer vision, robotic controls and software development skills (an important asset in autonomous vehicles).
This course spans over a time period of nine months, which is divided into three 12-week periods. The students are provided access to course materials related to sensor fusion, situation assessment, maneuver & trajectory planning and deep learning. Each term for this course costs $800 and enables you to learn how to write the software for a self-driving vehicle from scratch.
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.
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.
Your autonomous programs are tested on real-life vehicles, as Udacity has bagged permit for public tests on California roads. This is also recognized as the first credential in the global autonomous industry, i.e you’re qualified to work on a self-driving vehicle team if you complete this degree. Thus, MapmyIndia is planning to foster a similar culture in India by providing training and employment opportunities to deserving professionals.
Rohan Verma, Executive Director and CTO, MapmyIndia also comments on this partnership as under:
We’re excited to support our customers, work closely with the ecosystem & 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.
It is now looking to onboard some sharp minds to solve real-life challenges with the Indian mapping giant. MaymyIndia has already detailed its elaborate plan to map the complete world in 3D (coupled with video maps) to fuel the mapping infrastructure which can power self-driving cars, of smart cities and states and smart businesses. Uber (through Movement), as well as Google (Maps), both of the tech giants have followed similar tactics to build robust maps for their self-driving efforts.
MapmyIndia being the leader of mapping and location technology in India is looking to usher the era of autonomy with their latest collaboration. But, it is confident that self-driving will soon make their way to Indian roads, courtesy of amendments to the motor vehicles act. Once the government stamps the changes that permit testing of self-driving cars on Indian roads, automakers from all across the world will be flocking to the nation. You ask, why? Well, we’re all aware of the reason.
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.
