Garuda: India’s First AI-Enabled Driverless Bike Prototype Built by Surat Students

Three engineering students from Surat, Gujarat, have made headlines by building India's first driverless AI bike. Unlike other bikes in the market, they have made this bike a masterpiece by adding incredible, intelligent features and keeping its design sustainable by sourcing 50% of its parts from scrap materials.  

 

The three mechanical engineering students, Shivam Maurya, Gurpreet Arora, and Ganesh Patil, spent nearly a year and ₹1.8 lakh to come up with Garuda, a driverless AI bike. The bike is driven by a Raspberry Pi system that serves as its brain and allows it to listen and obey voice commands via Wi-Fi. Riders can operate this driverless Ai bike using minimal verbal instructions, and the bike can manage its speed, sense obstacles, and brake itself when it detects chances of accident, all with the help of its artificial intelligence similar to that of Tesla cars. 

 

Garuda's design centres on safety. It is always aware of what is going on with two sophisticated sensors. When something or anyone gets within 12 feet, it reduces speed. When something is at a radius of three feet, it instantly stops regardless of whether the rider is using the brake. Garuda is the state-of-the-art AI technology that seeks to lessen accidents significantly and ensure rider safety.

 

Garuda also features some intelligent rider-friendly options. It has a prominent touchscreen display that features navigation using GPS, music control and phone handling. It has front and rear cameras that give live traffic feeds and provide wireless mobile charging of smartphones when on the move. With a lightweight lithium-ion battery pack, the Garuda has a maximum useful range of 220km in eco mode and roughly 160km in sports mode. Its battery can be quickly recharged within two hours, faster than most retail commercial e-bikes today. 

 

These innovative engineers drew inspiration from Tesla and other autonomous vehicles, building a futuristic two-wheeler that is both affordable and advanced. The bike's name is Garuda, representing the powerful transport of lord vishnu 'Garud', a mythological bird that symbolises power, vision, and the Indian legacy of innovation. 

 

This innovative AI Bike has gone viral on social media, and its success points to India's youth engineers' ability to innovate with intelligent, environmentally friendly transportation technologies. They have shown the country that transportation design is a lucrative career best suited for design and tech enthusiasts. 

 

Garuda is the prototype of what can change urban transportation using artificial intelligence, green technology, and functional engineering at affordable costs using local resources. However, if this technology is widely adopted and properly implemented, it can revolutionize transportation in India and beyond. 

 

For design students and technology enthusiasts, the Garuda is a thrilling glimpse of where creativity and technology can converge and redefine transportation, sustainability, and envision a safer future of two-wheelers as well as their drivers.