Ford Motor Co. is using artificial intelligence to listen for engine and transmission defects that common tests miss, potentially helping the automaker trim a warranty bill that has topped $5 billion annually since 2024. The technology detects issues before vehicles get to dealerships, and it helped Ford climb from 14th place to third in problems per 100 vehicles in this year’s JD Power Initial Quality Study, trailing only Porsche and Genesis. Long-term quality has become crucial as the average sticker price for a new car hovers around $50,000 and some buyers finance vehicles for seven years or more. Ford is investing in AI to make its vehicles last. Its tool uses sound libraries of certified engines, transmissions and axles to flag possible anomalies that traditional tests often overlook. #Ford #AI #artificialintelligence #automotive #autoindustry

Ford’s rise to the top of JD Power’s influential rankings on new-vehicle quality emerged from a simple concept: Elevate the experts. Ford calls them technical specialists, and it has either hired or promoted from within more than 350 of them during the past three years. Each specialist is responsible for a specific vehicle part or component; the manufacturing team, for example, employs one expert who focuses on preventing engine contamination and another who deals only with vehicle wiring. The goal is to drill down to the root cause of problems by combining experience, available data and customer feedback while freeing up less specialized engineers and designers to meet weekly and monthly product development deadlines. Ford empowered its specialists to use knowledge from previous jobs to work across organizations, spotting and correcting defects before vehicles reach customers. “They have the scars on their back,” Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told Automotive News. “We realized that we needed some subject-matter experts in all of our key technology areas — individuals who are experts in their particular field.” #Ford #JDPower #automotive #autoindustry