Bangalore 19/3/2024: Minus Zero, India's leading autonomous driving technology startup, has announced a strategic alliance with Ashok Leyland, the Indian flagship of the Hinduja Group and the country’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer. This long-term partnership aims to revolutionize commercial trucking through the deployment of 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 endeavors 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 industry-first 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 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, Minus Zero said: "Ashok Leyland brings decades of experience in delivering high quality products at scale and 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 be working 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 the road accidents.”
About Minus Zero
Founded in 2021 by Gagandeep Reehal & Gursimran Kalra, Minus Zero is India's first startup building Foundational AI Models for autonomous driving delivered as an industry-first intelligent platform to automotive OEMs to enable autopilot & self-driving capabilities for nextgen vehicles across all geographies.
Having demonstrated India’s first autonomous concept vehicle, the zPod in June 2023, Minus Zero is backed by leading investors like Chiratae Ventures and more. Through its paradigm shifting AI approach, Nature-inspired AI, Minus Zero is committed to doing foundational AI research for autonomous driving in India for the global market.
Recognized with prestigious awards such as the NASSCOM AI Gamechanger, the Tech 30 from Yourstory, and the E&T Innovation Awards, the company has also represented India on international stages like Vivatech 2023 and the World Self-Driving Congress in Dubai.
To know more, visit www.minuszero.ai/
About Ashok Leyland
Pioneers in the Commercial Vehicle (CV) space, Ashok Leyland is a flagship of the Hinduja group, and is the 2nd largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in India, and 4th largest manufacturer of buses and 19th largest manufacturer of trucks in the world. Headquartered in Chennai, with 7 manufacturing plants in India, a bus manufacturing facility in Ras Al Khaimah (UAE), and one at Leeds, United Kingdom, Ashok Leyland has a well-diversified portfolio and an international footprint. Ashok Leyland has recently been ranked as 34th best brand in India.
A US $ 4.5 billion Indian multinational that has a 75-year legacy, and presence in more than 50 countries, Ashok Leyland is one of the most fully integrated manufacturing companies on this side of the globe. In the commercial vehicle industry, Ashok Leyland has one of the largest and fastest-growing networks with 52,863 touch points which includes 1748 exclusive touch points and 11,207 outlets for Leyparts.
The company now has a service centre every 75 kilometers on all major highways, allowing it to keep its “Ashok Leyland Quick Response” promise of reaching customers within 4 hours and getting them back on the road in 48 hours”. With technology-enabled customer engagement processes and knowledge on the specific applications of the product range, Ashok Leyland's sales team is well-equipped to fulfil customers’ needs. Ashok Leyland manages 12 driver training institutes across India and has trained over 1,800,000 drivers since inception.
Guided by the principle of "Koi Manzil Door Nahin," symbolising that no destination is too distant to achieve, Ashok Leyland is resolute in its pursuit to serve stakeholders and contribute to India's progress through continuous innovation and evolution.