How AI is driving a fast and furious revolution in cars and car-making

Many cars today possess self-driving abilities that can reduce or eliminate entirely the need for human intervention during driving. Thanks to Elon Musk’s Tesla for mainstreaming that technology.

Advances in self-driving tech promises a future that will have fewer accidents and a far more efficient transport system.

Though we are some years away from seeing fully autonomous vehicles in everyday transport, many companies have started embedding quasi-driverless features into cars aimed at boosting the safety of occupants. A recent fatal accident involving a driverless Uber is unlikely to inhibit advances in this technology.

Smarter cars

Several current generation personal and commercial vehicles are already smarter than the generation before. There are millions of vehicles across the world that are powered with features that significantly assist in driving.

The park-assist feature, for instance, steers a car into its parking spot by itself. Another system detects vehicles in blind spots when changing lanes. A rear collision warning system warns drivers if a speeding vehicle is approaching from behind. These features are controlled by onboard computers that take feedback from an array of sensors and cameras before relaying them to the driver.

Electric cars are leading the way here. For instance, the Nissan Leaf, one of world’s best-selling electric cars, can pre-warm or cool itself through an app. It can also call for help in case of a severe accident as well as lock the car through a smartwatch in case the driver forgets to do it.

Indian carmakers are not too far behind in the technology race.

In 2017, Tata Motors joined hands with software giant Microsoft in a partnership which aims to infuse the carmaker’s products with advanced technologies.to offer an array of digital driving experiences. Advanced navigation system, intelligent monitoring of features, over-the-air updates are some of the features that the smart Tata car of the future will have.

Tata aims to build cars that are developed as an extension of a smart phone, sporting features that use a common platform offering seamless connectivity. These offerings will be powered by Microsoft Azure cloud and services such as advanced analytics, machine learning, internet of things and artificial intelligence.

GuenterButschek, Chief Executive and Managing Director, Tata Motors, says, “We are using Microsoft’s connected vehicle technologies on Azure intelligent cloud to bring the digital lives of our customers into the cars they drive.”

AI at the farm

Crop farming is due to receive a shot in the arm through AI. Tractor leader Mahindra & Mahindra has developed three versions of tractors developed on the driverless platform. Based on GPS, these tractors can steer automatically and lift the work tool without any need of input from the farmer.

Drones are being used for soil testing, collection of crop information and even spray insecticides. The agriculture ministry in India is contemplating allowing greater use of such flying machines for agricultural purposes.

India’s farming techniques have not changed in the last 30-40 years, but Pawan Goenka, managing director, Mahindra & Mahindra, says they are in for a revolution thanks to drones, driverless cars and analytics.

The assembly line

The impact of AI on the automotive sector, however, will not be limited only to vehicle ownership. Robots have replaced manual labour in factories, especially in areas that require high degree of precision like paint job or others that are considered dangerous like welding.

Highly developed economies that typically rapidly-ageing populations will soon rely on AI-based automation to power productivity gains necessary to achieve GDP targets. In Germany, for example, a McKinsey that was published last year expects AI to enable significant automation, yielding up to 4 percent additional GDP in 2030.

Advances in computing power will give machines human-like abilities --to understand and organize unstructured data such as speech and photos, to recognize patterns, and to seek from past experiences to improve future decisions.

Where automation technology led to losses of commoditized jobs, AI will get even better. Advances in algorithmic research, coupled with increasingly powerful computer hardware, will allow AI to demonstrate autonomy and creativity. AI-based machines won’t just follow the rules, they’ll find ways to create solutions to complex problems within a given solution space, added the McKinsey report.

(This is the first of the six-part series that looks at the impact of AI across sectors. Tomorrow's story will look at how AI is increasingly taking over the role of insurance agents.)