Nissan, Monolith expand joint AI efforts to cut car development time

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By Nick Carey

LONDON (Reuters) -Nissan and UK software firm Monolith said on Friday they have extended their partnership using artificial intelligence to reduce vehicle physical testing as the Japanese automaker pushes to slash development times for new cars.

The extension comes after Monolith and Nissan successfully used AI to cut the physical testing time for tightening bolts on the chassis of the new electric Nissan Leaf – which will also be applied to future models in Europe.

It also comes as legacy automakers like Nissan are trying to slash vehicle development times from an average of around five years and catch up with Chinese rivals which can roll out a new model in as little as 18 months.

“We’re very aware of the Chinese development time,” Emma Deutsch, director for customer orientated engineering and test operations at the Nissan Technical Centre Europe, told Reuters. “We’ve got to get vehicles to market quicker.”

Squeezed by falling U.S. and China car sales, Nissan has been laying off workers and closing plants to turn itself around.

AI data centre operator Coreweave said earlier this month it would acquire Monolith to help customers shorten R&D cycles.

Deutsch said by applying Monolith’s AI to physical test data dating all the way back to the UK launch of the Nissan Micra small hatchback in 1992, the automaker was able to cut “massively time-consuming” bolt tightening tests to five months from six.

She added that she hopes for future models those tests could be halved to three months.

Deutsch said Nissan is now working with Monolith on projects to reduce test times for tyres and batteries with more expected.

Chinese EV maker Nio is also using Monolith’s AI to test and improve car battery packs.

By applying AI across more processes, Deutsch said she hopes to cut overall testing for new Nissan vehicles by 20%.

(Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Kim Coghill)