Toyota Turns To AI In An Effort To Catch Up In The EV Race

Undoubtedly, AI is the hottest topic of 2023 as there’s barely an industry not exploring the possibilities brought on by machine learning technologies. The automotive industry is no exception and Toyota Motor TM announced this week it will be using generative AI to develop its electric vehicles more quickly and efficiently. 

Toyota Will Combine Its Traditional Engineering With The Generative AI-based Car Design 

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) has developed a new algorithm that can help speed up the design process of new vehicles. This technology will allow engineers and designers to upload sketches and through text-based prompts, they will be able to ask the system to optimize them while respecting engineering constraints. This is an important milestone considering that generative AI has merely been used as an inspiration design-wise as the engineering and safety requirements that go into the actual design are far too complex to comprehend, as Avinash Balachandran,TRI’s Human Interactive Driving division director explained. Moreover, this technique will specially be useful for the aerodynamic part of the design is essential for the vehicle’s energy efficiency. In simple words, TRI will be using AI to cut down the iterations needed to reconcile design and engineering considerations, helping Toyota make EVs faster with an increased efficiency. 

Let’s Not Forget That AI Is At The Center Of Tesla’s Self-driving Software Technology

Although it seems like big news, AI is already a big part of Tesla’s EVs. The world seems to have forgotten that last September, Tesla Inc TSLA unveiled all kinds of developments on this front during its AI day, but more focus has been placed on Musk being among those who called for pause on this development, although he simply emphasized the need to minimize the probability of negative outcomes while fully acknowledging the positive potential of AI. Musk’s primary concern is the need to regulate the governance of AI, while Tesla, an EV company that is more about EV software than hardware, continues rulling on the EV front. According to Bloomberg, the EV king, Tesla Inc TSLA is projected to remain the top seller of EVs in the US through at least 2026 thanks to its discounting strategy. Besides the price war that helped Tesla renew demand for its vehicles, it seems the EV king has already won the charging war with Ford Motor F, General Motors GM and Rivian Automotive Inc RIVN agreeing to adopt its charging technology. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the state of Texas announced that all new EV chargers built using federal funding will have to include Tesla’s charging port, named the North American Charging Standard (NACS).

Could AI Be The Key To The EV Jump?

One thing is certain, the AI drum keeps on beating as only a little less than a month ago, even Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft BMWYY admitted it is experimenting with the idea to use generative AI to design parts of its vehicles, such as wheels. Toyota certainly needs a helping hand to catch up an EV race it wants to win, and AI is a very powerful card to have in one’s deck. AI-assisted aerodynamic design is only one tool in the suite of new technologies that Toyota has equipped itself with, along with perhaps the most crucial, next-generation EV battery. 

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