Implementing Self Driving Cars in India

Shlok Khemani Vidit Kothari Shamoil Loliwala

Department of Computers
Mukesh Patel School of Technology,
Management and Engineering
(NMIMS)
Mumbai, India
khemanishlok@gmail.com
Department of Computers
Mukesh Patel School of Technology,
Management and Engineering
(NMIMS)
Mumbai, India
vidit.k.kothari@gmail.com
Department of Computers
Mukesh Patel School of Technology,
Management and Engineering
(NMIMS)
Mumbai, India
shamoil.loliwala@gmail.com

Abstract—Throughout the globe, there is an increasing interest
in the deployment of self-driving (autonomous) vehicles, with
the aim that they would eventually replace human-controlled
vehicles.
Unlike in Western countries, where they have hit the
road in some form or the other, autonomous vehicles are rarely
talked about, let alone implemented, in India. In this paper we
have looked at various technical obstacles faced in India before
self-driving cars can be implemented and how to overcome
them.
I. INTRODUCTION
Around the world, the interest, research and deployment
of autonomous vehicles has significantly increased in the
past decade. Global tech leaders like Google, Microsoft and
Apple are all conducting research in the field.
The advantages of autonomous vehicles are numerous.
Perhaps the most significant one being increased on-road
safety. As a society, we currently rely heavily on the driving
ability of the individual: his or her experience, mental state,
temperament and sobriety. This dependence is reflected in
accident statistics: around 90% of road accidents are caused
at least partially by human error [1]. This problem is even
more relevant in India, where the process of obtaining a
driving license is comparatively relaxed and often
questionable. This, coupled with the burgeoning population,
increasing number of vehicles on the road and the high
number of unpaved roads in the country makes India one of
the most dangerous countries in the world for drivers and
pedestrians. Over 137,000 people were killed in road
accidents in 2013 alone [2].
Autonomous cars are operated by a computer.
Computers make decisions objectively. They aren’t
influenced by the factors mentioned above, which often lead
to accidents. This is why investing in the development of
autonomous vehicles is potentially so rewarding.
Autonomous cars make driving, which is one of the most
quintessential parts of modern human life, a much safer
experience for all those involved in it, directly and
indirectly. Governments spend huge amounts of money to
protect and monitor vehicular traffic. With the
implementation of self-driving cars, this money can be well
spent elsewhere.
India as a country is lagging behind compared to the rest
of the world in the research and implementation of self-
driving cars. This is in part due to government reservations
on the technology and potential loss of livelihood of drivers
[3]. However, autonomous vehicles are the future, India will
eventually have to adopt it and we need to be prepared to
adapt when the time comes.
India is a vast country. In its expanse, it covers every
possible type of terrain and roadway. Like various other
Asian countries, India faces some unique problems in the
implementation of self-driving cars. These concerns are very
different from those faced in Western countries, where
autonomous vehicles have been extensively tested. Some of
these concerns include the absence of proper road signs,
traffic lights and lane markings, a high number of
unexpected obstacles, unpaved highways and dirt roads and
the absence of a network of extensive highways. We have
referenced the work done by researchers in Pakistan [4] and
Bangladesh [5], countries which are geographically and
demographically similar to India, to find solutions for the
implementation of autonomous vehicles in India.
We have worked towards finding solutions for five
major concerns in the implementation of self-driving cars in
India: traffic light and road sign detection, stationary and
unexpected obstacle detection, navigation techniques, traffic
scenarios (changing lanes, driving in congestion) and
controlled parking.
II. TRAFFIC LIGHT AND ROAD SIGN DETECTION
A. Traffic Light Detection
Our roads are filled with traffic lights. They are a part and
parcel of road safety. To detect and follow these lights is of
paramount importance in an autonomous vehicle. In the
paper [7], the researchers have enabled an autonomous
vehicle to successfully navigate multiple intersections in
heavy traffic, while correctly detecting and following the
lights. To detect a single traffic light, the following steps are
followed:
1. The system is supplied with a predefined list of
locations of traffic lights.
2. The system, through cameras, begins looking for
lights according to the resolution of the camera and
a dynamic distance accounting for braking.
3. The expected location of the traffic light is
focussed onto a region of interest.
4. A template matching algorithm is applied to the
region of interest.
5. The result is passed through a histogram filter and
blurred, to remove uncertainty (possibility of a
light source being elsewhere).
6. The most prominent cell is detected from the filter
and the corresponding coordinates are transmitted.
7. The light’s colour, red, green or yellow, is reported
based on the results from the filter.

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B. Road Sign Detection
Sign detection, like traffic light detection, is one of the
more significant actions an autonomous vehicle needs to
perform to ensure safe navigation. In [7], researchers have
used a laser-based sign detector to locate the position and
orientation of signs encountered by the vehicle. A
supervised learning method (SVM) is trained to detect signs.
A sliding window detector with a fixed square size is used
for sign detection. After using non-maximal suppression
algorithms, a weighted voting method and accumulation and
projection on a RANSAC plane, we are able to detect the
type of sign and whether the vehicle needs to stop or not.
This method has yielded a success rate of 89%, significantly
reducing the human effort required to manually annotate a
map.
However, in India, traffic is still being controlled
manually in many areas. So as suggested by [5] an image
recognition software has to be developed which can identify
the signs and signals given by traffic policemen and
effectively make an autonomous car India friendly.
III. STATIONARY AND UNEXPECTED OBSTACLE DETECTION
The detection of small-sized and unexpected obstacles
can cause an alarming situation for cars on the road as it
could lead to severe accidents. In countries like India where
there is litter and potholes on the road, it is important that
we need to be able to detect this accurately to prevent
mishaps. This is one major aspect that needs to be
considered in the development of self-driving cars which are
going to become road legal soon. Hence we need accurate
results.
The researchers in the paper [6] have observed that in
the previously used technology the methods that tackled this
problem made use of stereo cameras so as to use geometric
means to detect and locate small 3D obstacles.
As we require accurate results in our line of research we
would need to use machine learning techniques so as to
supplement the geometrical means that are already being
used.
The advancements in artificial intelligence has given a
push to deep learning methods, in the field of computer
vision, deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) has
proved to be an excellent source for low level as well as
high-level image processing.
The contextual properties of the small unexpected
obstacles can be linked with the properties of CNN so as to
detect the obstacles irrespective of its shape and size. There
would surely be drivable road area surrounding the obstacle
hence making the maneuvering of the car also effective.
This paper [6] makes use of this advancement in CNN
technology in order to improve their accuracy in the
detection of small and unexpected obstacles on the road so
as to provide a safer environment for driving these cars.
CNN has helped the researchers to supplement the
already present geometrical methods in order to provide
more accurate results as there is a larger data set from which
obstacles can be detected and processed.
Furthermore, the researchers in this paper have also
started working on implementing a probabilistic fusion
approach that integrates their research with the already
existing best in class stereo-based systems.
In the paper [6], researchers have explored algorithms
for the detection of unexpected obstacles, focusing on small
road hazards like lost cargo. Since these objects cover only
small areas on scanned images, traditional obstacle detection
algorithms and techniques, which are suitable for large
obstacles, prove inefficient. The researcher have used CNNs
to learn context from training data and generalize
information. After using multiple algorithms over the same
data sets, researchers found the Fusion-Prob technique to be
the most efficient in detecting small obstacles. The Fusion-
Prob technique uses information from the UON-Stixel and
FPHT methods, combines it with Fusion-OR and Fusion-
AND techniques to generate results. The results from each
of these algorithms are given in Fig. 1.
Researchers in [7] use depth information to conduct
Velodyne scans. This removes the ground plane and the
remaining points are clustered. After feeding this through a
Kalman tracker and applying boosting classifiers, track
classification is complete. The accuracy of the classifier in
detecting obstacles such as pedestrians is 98% and the
system runs in real time. This method of obstacle detection
is highly reliable with one drawback which the researchers
are working on: when obstacles overlap (a pedestrian
crossing a pole), they aren’t detected as two separate
obstacles.
Fig. 1. Quantitative results from applying various techniques on the
data set
Researchers in [5] have suggested using an algorithm
which is demonstrated in Fig. 2. This algorithm works well
with the usual style of Indian driving where driving
regulations are not as stringent as in the western countries.
IV. PATTERN DETECTION AND NAVIGATION TECHNIQUES
A. LIDAR Based Navigation
In [7], researchers have developed a method for the
calibration of multiple laser beams to obtain a map of the
surroundings. This calibration is completely unsupervised.
For intrinsic calibration, points are aggregated and iterative
optimization methods are applied. Further performing
extrinsic calibration, we recover the position within
accuracy of 1cm. The final results are shown in Fig. 3.
B. Path Learning through CNNs
Since the advent of CNNs, instead of manually teaching
vehicles paths, they use convolution operations to not only
recognize patterns, but also learn the process pipeline
needed to navigate a motor vehicle in its entirety. This
concept was described by researchers in [9].
The block diagram in Fig. 4. shows how the
training system works. Images from various cameras on the
vehicle are fed into the CNN. Once trained, the network,
which has control of the steering, can steer the vehicle
according to the data generated from the images.
Fig. 2. Object Detection Algorithm for Indian Roads
Fig. 3. We achieve a very accurate calibration after optimization
The training data for teaching the CNN was
collected by driving on a variety of roads, in various
weather conditions. This is very important for a country like
India, where climate varies significantly and weather
conditions are very unpredictable (especially in the tropical
parts of the country). The data also included roads lacking
lane markings, another distinctive characteristic of Indian
roads. Furthermore, the amount training data was relatively
small and the vehicle operated in multiple diverse
conditions.
Fig. 4. Training the Neural Network.
When self-driving vehicles are implemented in
India, the methods prescribed in this paper to overcome
navigation problems will be most crucial.
C. Trajectory Planning
If we are to implement self-driving cars in real time
traffic, we have to consider the impact of other cars while
driving. These include everyday driving operations like
merging into traffic, changing lanes, avoiding collisions etc.
Researchers in [7] use an algorithm that transfers distance
and velocity control to the system and also actively avoids
obstacles controlling the steering, acceleration and breaking.
Researchers use the Frenet-Serret formulation and mimic
human like driving behavior by combining horizontal (Eq.
2) and vertical (Eq. 3) cost functions. They seek to eliminate
any kinds of jerks while changing trajectories, much like
how humans operate vehicles. Lateral and longitudinal
curves are then combined (Eq. 4).
D. Speed Adaptive, Ratio Based Lane Detection
System
As the lane detection and lane keeping of a car is done
by cameras, a huge amount of reliability of the self-driving
car is dependent on the frame rate of the camera.
Considering that at high speeds, a particular camera’s frame
rate induces a delay in giving the next frame to the
processor. This small delay can lead to a huge accident in
Indian conditions. Thus, researchers in [10] have developed
an algorithm where they can predict the next frame with the
help of the current frame and velocity of the car. Using
equation 5 and 6, one can plot a graph of where the car will
be in the next frame and find out the ratio of the distance
from the left lane to the distance of the right lane and
accordingly navigate through to keep the car in the lane.
(5)
(6)
Fig. 5. shows how this algorithm was tested in 3 different
combinations of speed and frame rate of camera. The
horizontal yellow line is the place where the car will next be
and the vertical blue line is how the car will continue to
drive on the current trajectory.

Fig. 5. Predicting future frames
V. CONTROLLED PARKING
As autonomous cars get increasingly popular, one has to
devise algorithms to ensure smooth and safe parking. Which
is the closest available parking? How to navigate to the
empty spot? All these questions can be answered by the
solution provided in [8] in which they used an Automated
Parking System with a graphical approach to solve the
parking problem.
a. Graph Generation:
First, the parking slots (P-node), pathway (T-
Node), and entry/exit points(E-node) are mapped
and converted into a graph. Fig. 6. Coverts to Fig.
7.
Fig. 6. The parking lot
Fig. 7. The parking lot is converted to a graph with P-nodes in
gray, T-nodes in white and E-nodes in Black.
b. Nearest Slot Parking:
The algorithm now uses an algorithm similar to
Dijkstra's algorithm to find the nearest available
parking slot. It follows these two points:
1. Generate the shortest path to every P-node from
every E-node and save them in a list such that
every E-node has its own list of closest paths with
the values sorted in ascending order of their cost.
2. Generate the shortest path to every E-node from
every P-node and save them in a list such that
every P-node has its own list of closest paths with
the values sorted in ascending order of their cost.
The reason for generating these two sets of path
separately is that a shortest path from a particular E-node to
some P-node, while parking, may not be the shortest path
while exiting, since it can have more options for E-nodes.
c. Experimental Analysis.
Consider that the car does not use the Automated
Parking System. As per Fig 4., let’s say that a car
follows the unguided approach, i.e, it does not use
the automated parking system and it finds that the
parking slot 16 is empty. Now to reach the slot, it
may have taken the path 0-3-2-7-12-17-16 or 0-3-
4-9-14-19-18-17-16 to reach the slot.
Fig .8. The non-guided approach(left) has car 5 parked at P7 and guided
approach has the car parked at P15.
In the second scenario, consider that it takes help
from the automated parking system and the system
finds the nearest empty slot and gives directions to
the car. Initially, when the slots near the entrance
are empty, both approaches are equally similar and
simple, however, as the parking lot fills up, the
guided approach becomes easier as shown below.
VI. CONCLUSIONX
Even though the implementation of autonomous vehicles in
India currently seems like a pipe dream, this paper goes on
to explore how potential problems and difficulties can be
overcome and solved.
The algorithms described by researchers in [7] have
generated high traffic light detection rates, as well as has
had good success in detecting road signs. However, as
suggested by [5], hand gesture recognition software need to
be developed.
Researchers in [6] have used CNNs for the detection of
unexpected small objects. In a country like India, this is very
essential. Moreover, they have devised an extremely
accurate algorithm which should be implemented in
autonomous vehicles in India. In [7], researchers have used
Velodyne scans to detect large obstacles like poles and
pedestrians. They have achieved an accuracy of 98%, which
is excellent.
For the mapping of roads, researchers in [7] propose the
use of LIDAR based technology. This mapping is
completely unsupervised and generates an extremely
accurate topological image of the surroundings in real time.
In a country like India, where there are unexpected obstacles
and changes in the vehicle surroundings, this kind of real
time mapping is critical.
In [9], researchers have used CNNs to train vehicles in
navigation. With a relatively small amount of training data,
the vehicle was able to completely navigate the path, in
various weather conditions. This paper will be vital in
training vehicles to drive in India, which is vast and has
varying and often unpredictable weather.
In [10], researchers have devised methods to predict
future frames using information from the current frame.
This helps a vehicle’s navigation remain stable.
In [8], researchers have explored the domain of parking
and how autonomous vehicles can most efficiently park
themselves.
Owing to the size, demography and diversity of the
country, the implementation of autonomous vehicles will
definitely be a huge task. However, we have tried to identify
specific potential problems and used research done in the
West, as well as by our neighboring countries, to look for
solutions.
As future work, we plan on collecting real time traffic
footage to train an autonomous vehicle. We will also try to
administer various methods, already implemented in other
countries, to a vehicle in Indian traffic.
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