The things are finally getting serious, with some of the widely popular car companies openly saying that they have started implementing AI in their design process. A few weeks back BMW design boss Adrian van Hooydonk in a conversation with TopGear.com revealed

“We are experimenting with it (AI) in design, for instance in wheel design,” he said. “You can set a few parameters – like, you want a five spoke wheel, it should only weigh this much, it should be a 20-inch rim – and then the computer begins to generate ideas for you.”

and it wasn’t the massive grill up front.

“If you look at our history, you’ve seen that we’ve done everything from vertical, very slim to wide, very low… we feel that the BMW brand has always offered some variation of that, so we can do anything really,”

van Hooydonk commented on the sarcastic remarks.

Thanks to AI we can run a quick check on this. Shall we?

artist: Things Evolution / source: Instagram

The incredible evolutionary video is an art created by Things Evolution, a talented content creator who happens to be incredibly interesting reels about car history. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should follow them here.

Another one one the block is no surprise, it is Toyota and it isn’t just their R&D departments, it’s the design itself. They want to use the technology in their early design stages where the need for iterations of the same project for engineering purposes are massive. By using the available text-to-image generative AI tools they will be able to simply speed things up. Toyota Research Institute (TRI) unveiled a generative artificial intelligence (AI) technique to amplify vehicle designers. They have actually released papers on the research that you can find here.

Other brands will definitely follow soon, if they haven’t done it yet. None of them is ready or in fact willing to give the full control over the design process to the generative AI. They have tried though, as BMW head of design said:

“… it was not very successful. You see online now a lot of AI-generated sketches, and while a lot of them seem attractive at first glance, when you look at it closer you think, ‘hang on a minute, I’ve seen that before”.

And he is most of the time absolutely right. Until innovation is born, for now let’s all take a look at what the car enthusiast really wish for, what are the wet-dreams of petrol heads. Imagine, what would have happened if we gave the AI full control over the design process.

This one? Anybody? Just teasing.

artist: ai.tomotive / source: Instagram

That Cayenne for sure. As the author Steve Zissou and a Porsche lover himself says “This needs to be real” and we couldn’t agree more. “…some guys modified a multipla to bring it to 1300hp so everything can be done. It being good is an other story though” as rightly one of the followers commented.

artist: Steve Zissou / source: Instagram

Motomuzis, now those are sleek! Mr van Hooydonk would you agree?

artist: motomuzi / source: Instagram

How about a bit of a return to the past? We reckon some of the good old cars should get their name brought back to life. Volvo, for example!

artist: Haillisim Hatch / prompt: <https://s.mj.run/b8mjYlRRDFk> 1981 245 wagon rocket bunny fender flares, sweeden, canon eos –aspect 1:1 –s 250 –style raw –quality 5 / source: X

If you are interested in AI automotive design you should definitely “attend” one of the car shows organised by Allar Haltsonen. Dreams unleashed. Jump in here. Enjoy.

artist: Cody Baker / source: X