Minus Zero, IIIT Hyderabad and iHub-Data to boost self-driving research ecosystem in India

Autonomous driving technology startup Minus Zero on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) and i-Hub Data to foster an autonomous driving research ecosystem in India.

Together, they aim to conduct ground-breaking research across multiple verticals, including foundational models for autonomous driving, computer vision, AD simulators, synthetic data, etc.

Gagandeep Rehal, CEO and Co-Founder, Minus Zero, said, “With India taking a strong position in the global AI race, close collaboration between industry and academia is important to foster an ecosystem that enables researchers to grow in the country. “Encourages further fundamental AI research.” ,

The alliance aims to strengthen the AI ​​research ecosystem in the country by connecting real-life industry problems with successful academic research.

The objective of this collaboration is to create a large-scale, engineered dataset of Indian roads that will be helpful in training, validating and benchmarking AI models for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving (AD).

The comprehensive dataset will document different road infrastructure, traffic flows and environmental settings across the country.

“This strategic alliance underscores iHub-Data’s dedication to leading Minus Zero in the automotive industry while facilitating cutting-edge research and technology development,” said iHub-Data CTO Veera Ganesh Yalla.

Minus Zero last year demonstrated the capabilities of its autonomous driving platform in a closed environment through a purpose-built vehicle, the ‘zPod’.

Founded in 2021 by Riehal and Gursimran Kalra, Minus Zero is backed by leading investors like Chirata Ventures and others.