MANOJ RAGHAVAN recalls at least two occasions when he had to take the wheel after a long overseas flight into Bengaluru. Before you start to wonder why he would do that in the early hours after an arduous travel schedule, it was simply because the driver was dangerously close to nodding off to sleep.
There is possibly nothing remarkably unusual about this except that our conversation with Raghavan is on driverless cars. And as CEO & Managing Director of Tata Elxsi, a name in global design and technology services, he is completely involved in what could be a defining moment in the automobile industry. “Imagine you are sitting in a vehicle that is zipping away at 100 km an hour without a driver. It is only natural for your heart to be pounding,” he says with a laugh. The inevitable question that will cross your mind would be if your car is awake. “And if you are dealing with tough weather conditions like rain, what assurance can a passenger have sitting alone in the car?”
As you sit back to paint the world a decade or two from now, where technology will dictate almost everything we do, the possibilities are endless. Autonomous driving, entertainment, healthcare, using the mobile phone or just any of the mundane activities we are involved in are just a few things that come to mind. Tata Elxsi already has a play in most of these areas and looks well-positioned to be in a lot more. “There is some very interesting stuff that we are working on,” says Raghavan, without giving away much. This is a business where customer confidentiality is paramount
