Toyota will turn to AI in the hope of solving some of the key problems posed by the uptake of EVs including battery weight and power demands.
The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) announced a multi-year, multi-million-dollar challenge for AI predictions for new materials that can be used in electric and autonomous vehicles.
The TRI are using AI to accelerate material developments that will further improve their automotive fleet.
TRI’s senior director of Energy & Materials, Brian Storey outlined that accelerating the process could advance technology such as autonomous vehicle (AV) batteries.
“That’s why TRI is trying something new. We are inviting the best researchers in this field to bring fresh thinking to help close the gap between the computer and the lab,” Storey says.
According to Repairer Driven News, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently released a report that says EV efficiency improvements, including improvements to batteries, are needed or the vehicles could put a high demand on the electric grid.
The report says, if no changes are made, on-road vehicle charging could be as much as 65 per cent of today’s total electricity demand by 2050.
Efficiencies that could reduce the energy demand include reducing the weight and density of the batteries, the report says.
Yet, the report notes that the automotive industry faces challenges as it shifts to EV production, such as slow production and supply chain movement of raw materials for EV batteries.
Multiple OEMs also have said they’ve shifted to designing more affordable EVs.
Toyota hopes that collaborations made throughout the challenge will help them advance quicker.
Toyota chief scientist and TRI CEO, Gill Pratt emphasised the benefits of the challenge.
“When we started TRI in 2016, one of our founding principles was that we would enthusiastically pursue collaboration with others and avoid the ‘not invented here’ syndrome,” Pratt says.
“Our intention is to shave years off the new materials discovery process by creating a collaborative research challenge amongst academics and research partners around the world.”