EKA, an electric vehicles & technology company, and a subsidiary of Pinnacle Industries Limited, and NuPort Robotics, a Canadian autonomous trucking company, on Wednesday announced India’s first deployment of Level 2 autonomy with ADAS features for EKA Mobility’s electric bus.
This allows NuPort to include progressive Level 2 autonomy and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for electric buses on Indian roads. The module that is now live, enables ADAS features in EKA Mobility’s electric buses, making it the first Indian company to bring such technology to the country.
Speaking on the partnership, Dr. Sudhir Mehta, Chairman, EKA & Pinnacle Industries Limited, highlighted, “Earlier this year we announced our partnership with NuPort, and today we have achieved and deployed Level 2 ADAS capability on our buses for safer transportation on Indian roads. We as a company believe in ‘think global and act local’, and this partnership strengthens our vision to transform our country’s public transportation, making it technologically advanced, efficient, and safe. We are proud to be the first movers in bringing India’s smartest electric bus. We look forward to continuing our commitment toward creating a new community in global CV electric mobility equipped with powerful techno_logy for mass adoption.”
NuPort’s technology provides Level 2 autonomy features for heavy commercial vehicles on Indian roads. Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) features such as Forward Collision Assistance (FCA), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Left Right indicator views (LRV), Reverse Parking View (RPV), Emergency Brake Assist (EBA), Post-Incident Analysis (PIDA) and a few others are provided for its clients. This is India’s first electric bus deployment with Level 2 ADAS features, and both companies are excited to take their commercial partnership forward.
Speaking on the partnership, Raghavender Sahdev, CEO, NuPort Robotics, mentioned, “Today with the support of EKA Mobility, we have achieved robust and safe deployment of Level 2 autonomy features for commercial electric buses for Indian roads. Over the next few years, we will deploy our technology across India, with EKA being our first Indian customer. Together with this integration and implementation, EKA Mobility and NuPort Robotics have the potential to transform commercial electric mobility with their integrated transportation ecosystem”
With this deployment, NuPort has solved the detection of complex traffic conditions and is able to detect and predict the speeds of Indian traffic with high accuracy. Conditions such as bumper-to-bumper traffic which is frequent on most Indian roads are seamlessly detected by NuPort’s in-house proprietary AI technology. This technology allows for safer and more comfortable driving as well as traveling experience.
EKA and NuPort will release a working demonstration of its ADAS functionality shortly. The technology will reduce accident rates involving public transportation vehicles on Indian roads significantly in the coming years. The bus driver will be alerted in the event of an impending collision with a nearby vehicle, allowing the driver to avoid potentially dangerous situations. Over the next few years, the technology will be deployed on 5,000 EKA Mobility’s electric buses which will operate on different Indian state roads.
Through this strategic technical milestone, NuPort will provide a seamless driving experience to bus drivers with its AI-enabled autonomous solutions on EKA’s electric vehicle platform. NuPort being an expert in offering artificial intelligence technology and EKA having expertise in the manufacturing of electric vehicles will work together towards the commercialization of the next generation of AI-enabled electric buses in India.