Japanese auto major Honda on Wednesday said it has started joint research on AI technologies with IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay with plans to develop driver assistance and automated driving technologies applicable in various regions of the world, including India.

The joint research is aimed to further advance Honda CI (Cooperative Intelligence)-- the original Honda AI that enables mutual understanding between machines and people, the company said in a statement.

Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL), a Honda subsidiary in India, will sign a joint research contract with the two IITs.

"The IITs are a home to a large number of excellent researchers and engineers, and through the joint research with those institutes, Honda will strive to advance the underlying technologies of CI, with an eye toward the future applications for technologies that reduce traffic collisions and enable automated driving," it said.

With an aim to achieve further advancement of CI, Honda and IITs have set joint research themes such as recognition of the surrounding environment and cultivation of cooperative behaviour, and will conduct research and development while utilising the cutting-edge AI technologies, it added.

Under the partnership, for each research theme, Honda associates and IIT professors will engage with IIT students for planning, designing, developing and testing technologies which work beyond the confines of the laboratory and thereby proceed with the research and development more flexibly and with a high degree of freedom, Honda said.

"This will enable Honda and IITs to work in a more flexible environment with deeper exchange of academic and industry insights," it added.

In addition, as part of this research, Honda with the help of IITs is aiming to conduct verification of driving assistance and automated driving technologies in the suburbs of Delhi and in Mumbai.

Due to numerous variations in the road systems and a large number of road users, India has a complex traffic environment where situations that occur frequently are difficult for AI to predict.

"By conducting technology verification in such a technically challenging environment, Honda and IITs will refine the underlying technologies of CI and strive to apply them to future driver assistance and automated driving technologies in various regions of the world, including India," the statement said.

Honda said it has been actively hiring IIT graduates since 2019, and many of them are now playing key roles in the areas of mobility intelligence, including the research and development of CI.

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