Ford admitted that its approach in recent years that artificial intelligence could replace experienced engineers was wrong. The company announced that it has rehired approximately 350 experienced engineers who retired or left the company in the last three years in order to reduce quality problems and streamline vehicle development processes.

Charles Poon, Ford vice president of vehicle equipment engineering, said managers failed to take into account the knowledge gained over many years of different product development cycles. Poon stated that they thought that activating artificial intelligence and transferring the current design needs to the system would create a high-quality work, but they were wrong.

Error acknowledged

Emphasizing that although artificial intelligence is a powerful tool, its performance depends entirely on the quality of the information it is trained on, Poon stated that this situation does not meet expectations. Engineers who have started their missions are now holding mandatory technical evaluation meetings with vehicle development groups.

At the same time, they also program automatic engineering software and artificial intelligence-based diagnostic systems to prevent errors that may arise before production. These expert teams try to prevent quality problems by identifying possible failure points before the modules reach the production limit.

Noticeable rise in quality rankings

This approach of Ford was directly reflected in the quality results. In JD Power’s annual survey, which measures the quality performance of vehicles in the first three months of use, the company ranked 10th among mainstream brands last year and was below the branch average.

However, in the research published this year, Ford surpassed Toyota and Honda and rose to first place among mainstream car brands. The company attributed this valuable improvement to the contribution of experienced engineers who returned directly to the mission. Do you think it is a real approach for technology companies to try to completely change the human experience with artificial intelligence?