Lithion Power is India's first company to provide lithium battery swap in the national capital to e-rickshaws
If you are someone who often drinks and drives, beware. You may be caught by your own vehicle even before that traffic policeman with a breathalyser catches you over drunken-driving.
A start-up in India has come out with a novel idea to check drunken driving by e-rickshaw drivers using artificial intelligence. Lithion Power, which is India's first company to provide lithium battery swap in the national capital to e-rickshaws, has implemented this new idea as part of its efforts to fulfil social responsibility.
According to Piyush Gupta, CEO and owner of Lithion Power, every e-rickshaw which is supplied with leased Lithion battery by the company will have a small camera fixed in the front. Using artificial intelligence, the monitoring centre of the start-up will analyse if the driver is drunk from his driving pattern. Also using a remote, the e-rickshaw can be stopped immediately, thereby preventing any menace on the road or to passengers.
Lithion Power has established battery swap operations in the National Capital Region (NCR), focused on public transportation of electric vehicles. Currently, these swap stations are working with last mile, e-rickshaws.
There are about two lakh e-rickshaws operating in and around Delhi, providing last mile connectivity. In the country, there are over 15 lakh e-rickshaws. It would not be long when there are at least 50 lakh e-rickshhaws in the country as they are an ideal public transport for last-mile connectivity. In some states and cities such as Mumbai and Chennai, e-rickshaws are yet to be permitted. Once that happens, its growth will be even faster with metro rail projects coming up in practically all major cities in the country.
Lithion Power has around 50 battery swap stations in Delhi. It hopes to replicate this model in other cities as well. It is in the process of setting up such stations in Bengaluru. It expects to open at least 500 such battery swap stations in Delhi and 10,000 in the entire country in the next few years. By this year-end, Gupta hopes to have at least 200 swap stations in NCR regions.
If using artificial intelligence to check drunken driving works in e-rickshaws, it could be replicated in other public transports like Ola, Uber and city buses.
Gupta's efforts came at a time when global cab aggregator Uber announced it has applied for a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to add a feature to its application to detect drunk passengers so that the drivers could assist them better.
The patent can help them identify drunk riders and service them appropriately. Investigations show a number of Uber drivers in the United States alone have been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing their passengers in the last four years. In India also there are a number of cases of harassment to women by taxi drivers. Uber has, however, not given details of the patent it has applied for.
Gupta claims that what his company has developed is a commercial innovation and the camera based to check on drunken driving using artificial intelligence can be extended to check harassment of women as well.
NO SWAYING
- Using AI, the monitoring centre of the start-up will analyse if the driver is drunk from his driving pattern
- Also using a remote, the e-rickshaw can be stopped immediately, thereby preventing any menace on the road or to passengers
- The firm has implemented this new idea as part of its efforts to fulfil social responsibility
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