One of the most important use cases is in design and engineering. Here, engineers can use AI tools to create new parts more quickly and in a cheaper way, which allows automobile companies to develop new vehicles in a faster way. Customers benefit from that via more regular updates and faster innovation cycles – new vehicles become better more quickly.

In manufacturing, AI has use cases as well. AI can help with production plant layouts and other optimization efforts, or via new technologies, such as cobots (collaborative robots), where AI-empowered robots work together with humans on tasks such as assembling vehicles.

Likewise, operators of energy storage assets, such as large batteries, can use AI to predict the best times to charge their batteries – when the price for electricity is low and there is a surplus – and when to discharge these batteries. This boosts the profitability of these companies and helps stabilize the grid by better balancing supply and demand.

AI can, using data from many different sensors throughout the vehicle, predict when parts are about to fail. They can then be exchanged or repaired before that happens, increasing driver safety and preventing accidents, which can also help reduce costs. This is called predictive maintenance – companies such as Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) or BMW (NYSE: BAMXF) use it today.

Of course, Artificial Intelligence is also central to autonomous driving capabilities, be it in robotaxis or via advanced driver assistance systems, such as breaking assistants or parking assistants. Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Waymo already has robotaxis on the road today, and many other companies plan the same over the next couple of years.

Self-driving vehicles could reduce operating expenses in logistics, make for a more comfortable riding experience, and as the technology advances, become way safer than human-driven vehicles.

Massive computing power and a lot of sensor data is necessary for the required algorithms to become better and better, which is why Alphabet, Tesla, and other self-driving tech players need to invest heavily to push the technology forward.

Other Auto Industry Winners to Watch

Investors can benefit from the growth of AI in the automobile industry in different ways. Investors can buy shares of automobile companies that use AI, like TSLA or BAMXF, or they can buy shares of companies like GOOG or Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) for their robotaxi businesses that utilize AI.  

Investors can also invest in the companies that are major suppliers for increased usage of Artificial Intelligence in the automobile industry. The data centers where self-driving algorithms are trained require massive computing power, which translates into growth opportunities for NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), for example.

Modern vehicles have many more sensors and chips, where companies, such as NVDA with its NVIDIA DRIVE platform and Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) with its Snapdragon Cockpit Elite chips, belong to the key suppliers.

Investors can also choose among some of our top Artificial Intelligence picks to benefit from increased Artificial Intelligence usage in the automobile industry and across many other industries.