When it comes to autonomous vehicles, the first car brand that jumps to mind is Tesla Inc. However, you’d be surprised when you know that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is also currently working on autonomous vehicles. Yes, you read that right. Recently, TCS commenced the testing of its first autonomous vehicle based on a Tata Harrier Dark Edition. And in the video shared by the company, this particular self-driving vehicle was seen showing its capabilities.
Tata Consultancy Services Testing Its Autonomous Vehicle
The video showing the Tata Consultancy Services autonomous vehicle has been shared on YouTube by on its channel. It starts off by showing the Dark Edition Tata Harrier with Tata Consultancy Services and TVS DriveSphere decals on the doors. It then also states that the vehicle has been equipped with 25+ sensors and 50+ features.
Soon after this, the video shows the three main hardware highlights of this particular autonomous vehicle, which include a LiDAR and GPS antenna, AI Vision Camera and V2X + GPS antenna. Moving ahead, the vehicle is then shown picking up a passenger. However, one interesting detail to note is that during the pickup, we can note that there is a person in the driver’s seat.
Most likely, this person has been appointed to handle the vehicle in case of any emergency or system error. The video then starts showing the highlights of the Tata Consultancy Services autonomous vehicle, which include autonomous emergency braking, where it stops after noting a pedestrian crossing the road. The vehicle then also stops at a traffic light and then starts to drive once the light turns green.
Apart from these, the vehicle also shows its Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control, where it slows down after noting the vehicle ahead of it. This particular autonomous vehicle also features gesture-based lane change and a driver monitoring system. The video also highlights the backbone of the TCS autonomous vehicle, which includes an AI algorithm suite, data analytics tool, agentic AI framework and many others.
TCS DriveSphere – The Technology Behind The Autonomous Vehicle
The autonomous vehicle seen in the video above is based on TCS DriveSphere, which is an AI-based autonomous mobility platform developed to support intelligent driving systems. It also uses a Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) architecture, which allows vehicle functions to be managed and updated through software.
The company is also using an Agentic AI framework, which has been designed to help the vehicle make decisions based on its surroundings and driving conditions. Apart from this, the platform follows the principles of an AI-Defined Vehicle. Artificial intelligence plays an important role in how the vehicle understands and responds to its environment.
TCS Autonomous Vehicle – What Does It Mean For The Future?
With this vehicle, Tata Consultancy Services wants to showcase how software, artificial intelligence and vehicle-to-everything communication can work together in an autonomous driving system. TCS, as we all are aware, is not a traditional car manufacturer. However, it is aiming to show the growing role of technology companies in the development of future mobility solutions.
However, it has to be highlighted that there is still a long way to go before we can say how these technologies will perform in everyday driving conditions. The video, however, showcases the different autonomous driving functions. For now, the Tata Harrier-based vehicle is a demonstration of TCS’ autonomous mobility technology and not a production-ready self-driving car.