For the JIT model to work, the quality and supply of raw materials, the production of goods, and the customer demand for them must remain in alignment. If any one of the links in the chain breaks, stalls, or falls out of sync, the impact on the supply chains that crisscross the world can be felt immediately. For companies, unable to deliver on orders in a timely fashion, they risk losing not only efficiency gains but also brand credibility, market share, and revenue. Now, companies are seeking new ways of managing their supply chains that offer greater flexibility and transparency. In the automotive sector, some companies including Nissan and JIT pioneer Toyota are increasing chip inventory levels, while others including Volkswagen and Tesla are trying to secure their own supplies of rare metals.

Porsche uses artificial intelligence (AI) in vehicle development to make drive systems even more efficient and sustainable and to further optimize development processes. AI gives computers the ability to analyze problems and solve them automatically--much like a human being. This potential is being exploited in powertrain development, both in the field of e-mobility and in the internal combustion engine as a traditional domain of mechanical engineering. In the development of traditional combustion engines, for example, AI solves the problem of predicting the gas content in the engine oil. Since high gas content leads to oil foaming and thus to reduced lubricity, the oil system must be designed for the lowest possible gas content.

Computer simulations are a critical part of the product design optimization process, allowing engineers to test various configurations and select the best design among the many different alternatives. But even at a facility like the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, with its state-of-the-art resources, simulations can be very expensive and take a long time to run. With the goal of accelerating this design process, a research team in Argonne's Energy Systems (ES) division, comprised of postdoctoral appointee Opeoluwa Owoyele and research scientist Pinaki Pal, recently developed a new design optimization tool called ActivO. The new tool can drastically reduce the time needed to find the best design. It employs a novel machine learning technique that helps users focus on how to most efficiently target computational resources.

Nearly every new day brings exciting news in the field of artificial intelligence. But what larger directional trends do these news items drive? Beyond the announcements and the hype, is AI really evolving? In this article, I'd like to focus not on far-off, vague hopes and wishes about AI, but instead on a few concrete developments that lie in the not-so-distant future. The trends outlined below are already beginning to materialize in the form of real-world research and applications.

Self-driving electric vehicles that change colour could be seen hitting the roads by 2050, automotive firm Auto Trader has claimed. Their predictions for the car of the future have been guided by so-called'futurologist' Tom Cheesewright and a survey of more than 2,000 UK drivers. They think the car of 2050 will include an all-electric cabin fitted with 360 panoramic glass windows and body panels that will change colours. Auto Trader has revealed how it envisions how the future of driving will look like in the year 2050. It includes an all-electric cabin fitted with 360 panoramic glass windows and body panels that will change colours (pictured, artist's impression) The 2050 car would supposedly come with fitted with windows that extend into the roof to form a large bubble.

Alphabet and Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, is the latest tech giant kingpin to make a public call for AI to be regulated while simultaneously encouraging lawmakers towards a dilute enabling framework that does not put any hard limits on what can be done with AI technologies. In an op-ed published in today's Financial Times, Pichai makes a headline-grabbing call for artificial intelligence to be regulated. But his pitch injects a suggestive undercurrent that puffs up the risk for humanity of not letting technologists get on with business as usual and apply AI at population-scale -- with the Google chief claiming: "AI has the potential to improve billions of lives, and the biggest risk may be failing to do so" -- thereby seeking to frame'no hard limits' as actually the safest option for humanity. Simultaneously the pitch downplays any negatives that might cloud the greater good that Pichai implies AI will unlock -- presenting "potential negative consequences" as simply the inevitable and necessary price of technological progress. It's all about managing the level of risk, is the leading suggestion, rather than questioning outright whether the use of a hugely risk-laden technology such as facial recognition should actually be viable in a democratic society.

With 100 million Toyota vehicles on the planet emitting greenhouse gases at a rate roughly comparable to those of France, the Toyota Motor Corporation has set a goal of reducing all tailpipe emissions by 90 percent by 2050, according to Brian Storey, who directs the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) Accelerated Materials Design and Discovery program from its Kendall Square office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He gave the keynote address at the MIT Materials Research Laboratory's Materials Day Symposium on Oct. 9. "A rapid shift from the traditional vehicle to electric vehicles has started," Storey says. "And we want to enable that to happen at a faster pace." "Our role at TRI is to develop tools for accelerating the development of emissions-free vehicles," Storey said. He added that machine learning is helping to speed up those innovations, but the challenges are very great, so his team has to be a little humble about what it can actually accomplish.

Microsoft president Brad Smith has predicted that artificial intelligence will transform society in the next three decades, just as the internal combustion engine did during the first half of the 20th century. Smith was speaking at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday, where he discussed the intersection between tech and society. He said: "When we look to the decade ahead, in many respects AI will be a tool of the sort the world has seldom seen before, and hence it can become a weapon as well. When you look back at the first half of the twentieth century, it was a time that was transformed by one invention above all else: the combustion engine. "[The combustion engine] led to the car and the airplane; it led to the truck and the tractor; it changed every part of every economy.

Volkswagen plans to dramatically undercut Tesla in a bid to take on Elon Musk's electric car firm. Reuters claims the firm is planning to sell its'MEB entry' vehicle for just £22,836 (20,000 euros) and plans to make 200,000 of them a year. Tesla's base Model 3 will cost $35,000 - but is not yet available, with the cheapest version on sale costing $45,000. Volkswagen will manufacture 10 million cars that are affordable and all-electric. All of them will be based on its modular MEB platform, which includes the'ID' concept cars (pictured).

Volvo envisions a future where your car is a place to sleep, hang out and do work while on the road. The Swedish carmaker unveiled Wednesday its latest concept car, dubbed the 360c, that's an all-electric, autonomous vehicle meant to make traveling and commuting a more pleasant experience. Volvo, which is eyeing a 2021 release date, has an ambitious vision for the 360c, believing it could revolutionize short-haul air travel, city dwelling and our environmental footprint. Volvo on Wednesday unveiled its latest concept car, dubbed the 360c, that's an all-electric, autonomous vehicle meant to make traveling and commuting a more pleasant experience Besides city driving, Volvo said the 360c would create new demand for inter-city taxi passengers travelling as far as 300 km (186 miles). The firm claims it will feature Level 5 autonomy, removing the need for a human driver whatsoever.