In an exclusive interaction with Rajesh Rajgor at the Prawaas 3.0 exhibition held in Hyderabad, Paritosh Dagli, COO, Starkenn Technologies, shares updates on their work towards safety awareness for the bus industry as well as other vehicles
The bus sector is on the road to recovery. The number of clients and queries the bus fleet operators are generating is quite positive. At Starkenn Technologies, our primary concern has always been bus industry safety. I am thrilled to announce that during the past 10 years of my life, I have contributed to safety. India has been quite open and there is a lot of concern for the safety of both the bus business and other vehicles. In comparison to about five years ago, awareness has increased today.
With OEMs launching their own safety products, such as lane departure warning systems, collision avoidance systems, blind spot detection and pedestrian detection, they are expanding into this market. In my opinion, EV and ADAS will be the next two major developments that will revolutionise the automotive industry and so we are happy to be in the safety sector. Therefore, from a technology standpoint, what we provide is the collision avoidance system, which will automatically apply the brakes of a vehicle in the event of a collision with an automobile in front.
With our cutting-edge algorithms and radar-detecting technologies, which we have so far placed in more than 2,000 vehicles, we are delighted to state that we have helped save more than 500 lives. We have a driver monitoring system that will keep an eye on the driver to see if he is drowsy, sleeping, or even distracted. If that happens, it will prevent accidents. Thus, we have these two crucial items to give the bus industry.
Made in India Products
Our entire product line is ‘Made in India’. That is the one area in which we outperform our rivals. India is a very price-sensitive market, and while safety products were previously put on the backburner five years ago, consumers now consider them to be on par with tyres and diesel. As a result, our prices are also cost-effective. Even though it isn’t top priority, it is still very much present. People are debating it, so we are providing our consumers with a subscription-based model based kilometre-wise in an effort to win back this price-sensitive market. If there isn’t an accident within a year of us delivering the product, we will raise our per-kilometre rates, and if there is, we will assume responsibility and lower the rates.
Capacity and Demand
We have teamed up with numerous OEMs, Tier I firms and global Tier I firms to introduce this product into the aftermarket space. They understand how crucial it is for us to create the algorithms in accordance with the conditions of Indian roads. These goods are available from other OEMs or Tier I but they are designed for use on roads outside of India. Therefore, it is crucial that they be modified to suit actual conditions. It’s necessary to have the algorithm fine-tuned because there are many other inhabitants on the roads besides only people and cars.
These may include bullock carts, cyclists, e-bikes, etc. Therefore, it’s important that the technology and algorithms are adjusted to meet those conditions. Regarding production, all of the technology has been created in-house. We outsource the product’s production, but we have the product capacity and can do the assembling, testing and final testing internally. We are ready to launch since Badve Engineering, a Tier I automobile two-wheeler supplier, has backed Starkenn Technologies and has a very strong position in the production of these items.