Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola Electric—India’s largest electric scooter maker—shared a unique video on April 1st. He announced that his company, Ola Electric, has created a self-driving electric scooter. He stated that it has been named the Ola Solo. However, a number of people quickly understood that this is an April Fool’s prank. But now a day later, Bhavish has shared that Ola Solo is not a joke. Now if you’re one of those people who are confused if Ola Solo is a real deal or not, here’s the explanation.
Promised you a new product and here it is!
Presenting ‘Ola Solo – India’s first autonomous electric scooter.’ Solo is a fully autonomous, AI enabled and traffic smart scooter. Hail a ride or drive your own Solo. We will disrupt ride hailing and local commerce!
Another feat of… pic.twitter.com/QbCkvOhhZV
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) April 1, 2024
Ola Solo unveiled
Yesterday, Bhavish Aggarwal, via his X (formerly Twitter), shared a video of Ola Solo. He stated, “Promised you a new product and here it is! Presenting ‘Ola Solo—India’s first autonomous electric scooter.’ Solo is a fully autonomous, AI-enabled, and traffic-smart scooter. Hail a ride or drive your own Solo. We will disrupt ride-hailing and local commerce!”
In this video, a number of Ola Electric employees were seen describing this unique autonomous electric scooter. Dubbed as Ola-nomous, the Ola Solo was shown riding by itself. The scooter was balancing itself, and at one point, it even showed a person sitting on the rear of this scooter.
However, as the video progressed, the Ola Electric team members started describing it. It became apparent that this was an April Fool’s prank by the company. The chipset powering this autonomous scooter named LMAO 9000 and its “Vishram” feature made it clear that it was a joke. Another funny technological term used in the video was “JU-Guard technology”.
Bhavish Aggarwal on Ola Solo
Not just an April fools joke!
We announced Ola Solo yesterday. It went viral and many people debated whether it’s real or an April fools joke!
While the video was meant to provide a laugh to people, the technology behind it is something we’ve been working on and have… pic.twitter.com/4AUEqtPBGW
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) April 2, 2024
As stated above, by the end of the video shared by Bhavish Aggarwal, almost everyone concluded that Ola Solo is not a genuine product. However, to everyone’s surprise, Bhavish has now shared another tweet. In this, he has mentioned that the Ola Solo is indeed a real project that they have been working on.
In his tweet, he added that the first video was shared to give a laugh to the audience. However, they have been working on autonomous driving scooter technology behind the curtains. Bhavish stated that they have even created a prototype of the self-driving scooter.
He concluded his post by saying, “Ola Solo is a glimpse into the future of mobility, and our engineering teams are working on autonomous and self-balancing tech in two-wheelers, which you’ll see in future products from us.”
So is Ola Solo real?
At this point, what we believe is that Ola Electric has created a prototype of a self-balancing autonomous electric scooter. We say this because the video shared by Bhavish looks very convincing. Eagle-eyed viewers can note that there is a device placed on the right side of the rear wheel.
This looks like a device that has been created to balance the scooter. Now the exact technology used behind this prototype is currently unknown. However, as Bhavish Aggarwal has stated, the company is working on the development of it to offer it in their future products.
Could this video be CGI?
Now despite Bhavish Aggarwal’s statement, a number of people might be thinking this video could be CGI. However, we believe that this video is legit as it becomes very hard to have as many details as a real video.
In the most recent video shared, shot in an underground parking lot, it can be noted that the scooter’s headlight was projecting real light. Also, the shadow of the scooter appears to be real. Cred’s incredible CGI video.
Additionally, the scooter at one point was also about to turn early and crash. However, it was controlled by a man walking behind with a remote. Towards the end, the scooter also stops at one point and can be seen shaking from left to right, suggesting that it could be a real prototype.
The post Ola S1 Solo Self Riding Scooter – April Fool’s Joke Or Real? We Explain! first appeared on Cartoq.
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