[RahulNagaraj]

Secondmind, a British AI firm backed by Mazda is said to be working on harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to slash vehicle design & development times by a significant margin.

The company claims that by using AI, they can bring down the development time of a new vehicle from years to just months. The firm believes that AI will help them cut down the number of errors made during the design and testing stages by a factor of 10. This leads to 40% fewer prototypes, which not only saves development time but also the amount of money spent.



The company recently underwent a round of funding and received a total of $16 million from a number of companies, including Mazda. Secondmind states that the money received will not only go towards ramping up its sales & marketing, but also accelerating the development of its cloud-native optimisation engine. The AI firm will also be increasing its support for Mazda's advanced AI research and education strategy.

Maohito Saga, Head of R&D, at Mazda, stated, "The automotive industry needs to further accelerate the speed and efficiency of development due to the diversification of market needs and the increasing sophistication and complexity of technology." He further added, "We look forward to the partnership with Secondmind contributing to the further evolution of Mazda’s vehicle manufacturing."

Talking about the partnership with Mazda, Gary Brotman, CEO, of Secondmind, stated, "Secondmind and Mazda have been aligned from day one around a common goal of enabling continuous optimization of vehicle design and performance and helping the automotive industry deliver in the era of the software-defined vehicle." He also added, "We are proud to support Mazda in opening new avenues for AI innovation in automotive engineering by way of Mazda’s advanced AI research and education strategy."

Source: Autocar UK

Link to Team-BHP news