Germany - The company has worked with the production technology division of the equipment and metal forming technology competence center to develop software that automatically recognises and marks cracks in sheet metal parts in a matter of seconds. It is currently being tested at Audi's factory in Ingolstadt, but could soon be used in other plants.

"Artificial intelligence and machine learning are key technologies for the future at Audi," predicted CIO Frank Loydl. "With their help, we will continue to sustainably drive the digital transformation of the company. In this cross-divisional project, we are jointly developing a production-ready solution that Audi will use exclusively in the company and which is unique in the market."

Audi believes that quality inspection using AI will replace the current approach of smart camera-based checks, which often falsely detect cracks in metal. It also hopes to use software in other quality inspections.

As well as adopting AI, the OEM recently announced plans to use 5G at its plants in order to enhance efficiency.