Tata Elxsi and AEye Unveil Integrated RoboTaxi System

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Today, Tata Elxsi, a global design and technology services company, and artificial perception pioneer AEye announced the successful completion of RoboTaxi, Tata Elxsi’s in-house concept demonstrator vehicle developed using AEye’s iDAR™ platform and Tata Elxsi’s autonomous stack. iDAR is the first fully software-definable smart sensor that supports dynamic ROI and cueing of sensors, improving the reliability of detection and classification, while extending the range at which objects can be detected, classified and tracked to enhance safe, reliable vehicle autonomy.

Tata Elxsi’s RoboTaxi, built on top of its software middleware platform Autonomai, with deep learning and AI capabilities, was used to conceptualize the RoboTaxi feature. The feature allows the user to travel in a RoboTaxi from their current location to the user’s selected destination with the press of a button on the screen. The fully autonomous vehicle, fitted with AEye’s iDAR, encounters various scenarios, such as cross-traffic detection at a junction and round-about, follow the road ahead, and cueing the sensor with HD maps and V2X information. Tata Elxsi is responsible for iDAR integration into the vehicle, interfacing with the AD stack, simulation, vehicle testing and demonstration for AEye.

“Tata Elxsi has been a wonderful development partner, helping us to extend the software capabilities of the iDAR platform and integrate iDAR into a fully realized autonomous driving stack,” said Abhijit Thatte, VP of AI and software at AEye. “Building a reference autonomous system from the ground up, based on iDAR as the artificial perception platform, is a fantastic achievement for the AEye and Tata Elxsi’s AD/ADAS team. We are excited to be demonstrating some of the unique capabilities of iDAR and how they can accelerate the deployment of autonomous features in vehicles.”

AEye’s system is unique in that it can scale for "Autonomy on-demand"—allowing for any hardware implementation, from low-cost ADAS to fully integrated 360 degree robotaxi functionality. AEye also recently announced the ability to move selective perception capabilities to the edge of the network, onto the sensor itself.

“iDAR is a powerful perception platform, and it has been an exceptional opportunity to work with iDAR and the AEye team to realize our shared vision of how to implement autonomous driving,” said Nitin Pai, Chief Marketing Officer, and Strategy Head of Tata Elxsi. “We look forward to continuing to work together to deliver exciting new capabilities in 2020.”

Both companies will be demonstrating the advanced RoboTaxi software framework that helps car makers accelerate their autonomous development initiatives at CES in Las Vegas, January 7-10, 2020. AEye will be showcasing the solution in LVCC booth #7538, while Tata Elxsi will be demonstrating the reference autonomous system at booth #1301 in the Smart City pavilion of the Westgate Convention Center.