GM puts AI and simulation at the centre of a plan to halve vehicle development time

GM announced the goal at its GM Forward event on 21 October. The company uses the traditional industry cycle of four to five years as its reference. The announcement gives neither a measured average for GM's own current vehicle programmes nor a firm date for applying the shorter process across the company.

The proposed process gives designers, engineers and manufacturing teams access to the same evolving digital representation of a vehicle. Their work can overlap from the outset, so a change in one area can be assessed by the other disciplines while the design is still being developed.

GM points to its lithium manganese rich battery programme as an example. It says teams assessed more than 300,000 candidate designs in simulation before making a physical prototype. The first pack concept received formal programme approval within one month. That interval ends at approval, before the remaining work needed to validate and industrialise the product.

Jason Fischer, GM's executive director of virtual integration, described related work in a company article published on 18 June. He outlined the use of virtual wind tunnels and combined hardware and controller simulations, with engineering teams drawing on decades of accumulated data.

Fischer also said physical testing remains essential. Virtual development is intended to identify weaknesses sooner and make hardware tests more focused. The October announcement does not report a completed whole-vehicle programme that demonstrates the halving goal.