Self driving TATA Nano can drive manual transmission – Video

 

While it may seem Dr Roshy John was working on a Nano as it’s the cheapest vehicle to experiment on, the choice was actually made thanks to its rear mounted engine. John needed all the empty space up front to mount the sensors and computing power he would need to have the car drive itself. He and his team even built a piloted gear shifting system, seeing as the design was originally for a manual transmission. Testing was another massive hurdle, as Indian roads are not in the same pristine state that Google and Tesla’s trial tracks are.

The end result? Five years later, John and his team claim they’ve built a system that can be fitted to any car in under an hour’s time, a huge accomplishment in the face of conglomerates that are still perfecting their own fully customized autonomous vehicles. But don’t just take our word for it, check out the video below for yourself.