Ashok Leyland, the Indian flagship of the Hinduja Group and the country’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer has announced a strategic alliance with Minus Zero, India’s leading autonomous driving technology startup. This long-term partnership aims to revolutionize commercial trucking by deploying autonomous solutions at scale.
The initial focus of this collaboration will be on developing tailored autonomous trucking solutions for ports, factory operations and corporate campuses. Future endeavours include expanding into hub-to-hub applications and long-haul trucking, subject to evolving regulatory frameworks surrounding autonomous driving.
At the core of this alliance is the seamless integration of Minus Zero’s autonomous driving platform leveraging its pioneering nature-inspired AI technology, into Ashok Leyland’s fleet of commercial vehicles. Leveraging Ashok Leyland’s esteemed product portfolio and safety standards alongside Minus Zero’s expertise in self-driving technology, the collaboration aims for the safe and scalable adoption of autonomous driving in commercial vehicles.
Last year, Minus Zero demonstrated the capabilities of its autonomous driving platform in a closed environment through a purpose-built vehicle, zPod.
With global regulations and infrastructure evolving to support autonomous driving, this collaboration can extend to offer joint product offerings to international markets.
Gagandeep Reehal, CEO and Co-founder, of Minus Zero said: “Ashok Leyland brings decades of experience in delivering high-quality products at scale. We’re excited to partner with them in this journey of accelerating autonomous driving in India and globally. With our Nature-inspired AI, we are bringing a paradigm shift by building Foundational AI models for autonomous driving. This partnership marks the beginning of India’s Autonomous Driving story.”
N Saravanan, Chief Technology Officer, Ashok Leyland said: “Ashok Leyland has been looking for ways to reduce the cost of logistics in India in line with the Government’s National Logistics Policy. We see a role for autonomous driving in select sectors in achieving this and we have been partnering pioneering startups in this area. Minus Zero’s capabilities and plans impressed us, and we are excited to work with them to develop India-specific solutions, that can be scaled globally. We see spin-off benefits in developing cost-effective active safety solutions to reduce road accidents.”
