The Hindu Business Line : Affordable smart cars not far away

“Indian cars are soon coming up to mark. Five years from now, we could see economy cars with intelligent features,” predicted Mr Anup Sable, Vice President-Automotive, KPIT Cummins Infosystems, Bangalore.

The number of Indian firms investing in research in auto electronics is still low, as the return on investment in this field is less.

“Innovation is driven by opportunity. India is currently a low volume market. So products for Indian cars will only be adaptations of what is already being offered in other countries,” he said.

KPIT Cummins is working on research and development projects — mostly ‘invisible’ technological advancements.

Four patents have been pocketed relating to in-vehicle networking (connecting the 100 plus micro-computers inside a car), AUTOSAR (an industry standard for a car’s software platform) and microprocessor health checks.

Two more are expected this year. Of the 1,000 employees of the division, 200 are involved in research.There are a lot more things that your car could do besides brake intelligently.

Imagine the headlights repositioning themselves as you swerve down a ghat road.

With fitted gyroscopes and various other inputs streaming in digitally from the wheels and the steering wheel, the headlights would intuitively light up the necessary section of the road.

Peering into future

In the future, using nanotechnology, just a touch could make your car change its colour. Various technologies — wireless, GPS — either invisible or visible to the driver will combine to make the car an infotainment hub.

Ads could stream wirelessly into your car from hotels/theatres in the street using location-based services that leverage satellite navigation.

Passive and active alerts could make streets safer to drive. When your car enters a ‘no horn’ zone, an alert could inform the driver or automatically turn off the honk.

Similarly in speed zones, the car would read the road signs using cameras positioned up front and adjust its velocity accordingly.

While these are still futuristic, smaller infotainment products such as Internet radio and traffic information updates can be expected in luxury cars soon, said Mr Sable.

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