Artificial Intelligence in Practice

45Daimler AG: From Luxury Personal Cars To Passenger Drones

Daimler AG, the German parent company of the Mercedes-Benz as well as Smart car brands, has a long history of building luxury and consumer vehicles, trucks and buses since its predecessor companies merged into Daimler-Benz AG in 1926.

Today, as well as being renowned for its precision-engineered automobiles, it is investing heavily in automation and fourth industrial revolution technology, from its design and production operations to the vehicles themselves.

Machine learning is playing an integral part in every part of this transformation, helping to streamline processes, cut down on waste and remove human error from many equations.

What Problems Is Artificial Intelligence Helping To Solve?

Mercedes-Benz is using artificial intelligence (AI) to create efficiencies in vehicle production, transportation and passenger transport.

Vehicle design and manufacture is a labor intensive and costly process, involving high-tech plants and equipment and large workforces.

Equipment breakdown and human error can lead to wasted resources, costly delays and injury.

In addition, the changing ways that we are using personal transport is leading to problems for car manufacturers that are sticking to traditional models. Particularly in cities and urban areas, a move away from car ownership and towards ride sharing and public transport means a declining customer base. Often this is driven by an increased awareness of environmental issues, ...