Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwa revealed on Tuesday that the autonomous electric scooter prototype which the company showcased on microblogging site X (formerly known as Twitter), was not an April Fool’s joke, but a real project under development.
On April 1, India’s largest mobility platform made an announcement via a video —which went viral—arousing widespread curiosity about its authenticity.
Ola clarification on Solo
In a post on X, Ola CEO said, “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!”
Clarifying the doubts, Aggarwal said the announcement, made via a viral video, represents genuine engineering advancements and showcases actual technology being prototyped by the company.
“While the video was meant to provide a laugh to people, the technology behind it is something we’ve been working on and have prototyped. It shows the kind of pioneering work our engineering teams are capable of,” Aggarwal said.
The Ola CEO said the company is working on autonomous and self-balancing technology in two-wheelers, which will be evident in future products from the mobility platform.
“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 if future products from us, he said.
The post, shared on April 2, has accumulated over 127.6K views and 1.2k likes and the numbers are still rising. It has evoked a flurry of comments.
On April 1 Aggarwal unveiled Ola Solo prototype on X, highlighting its game-changing features. “Presenting ‘Ola Solo – India’s first autonomous electric scooter.’ Solo is a fully autonomous, AI-enabled and traffic smart scooter,” he shared, emphasizing the disruptive potential of Solo in the realms of ride-hailing and local commerce.
Among the standout features of Ola Solo is its multilingual voice interface, powered by Krutrim’s AI technology, enabling interaction in 22 languages. Safety and security are paramount, with Solo incorporating facial recognition technology for helmet activation, ensuring rider protection.
