what is it? And why can it revolutionize the automotive industry?

Digital Twin, i.e. Digital Twin. Translated further: a technology that can revolutionize the automotive world. But what is it about? What function does it have and what advantages does it bring?

Let’s proceed with examples: imagine you have the hobby of carpentry and you want to build a wooden table. Why rack your brains over choosing the materials, possibly producing a model or transferring the drawing onto graph paper, complete with joints and screwing points? Think of all the ‘Digital Twin’ and all you have to do is create the chosen object in practice.

Easy isn’t it? And indeed the technology Digital Twin is much more, because it combines artificial intelligence with the ability to learn of machines (machine learning) and many other 4.0 gadgets with unbearable English nomenclature.

Digital twin and physical twin

So let’s try to find some more exact definition of Digital Twin. Meanwhile, it can be said that it is a technology that represents thethe other digital ego of a physical activity. In practice, even before putting an object in the pipeline, the ‘Twin’ defines it for you in digital format and then allows you to move on to the ‘physical’ construction, thus saving you time, money and energy.

Kia at Milan Design Week 2023

All this applies not only to ‘things’, but also to processes, systems and services (if you want some more in-depth information, there are, for example, those of Amazon Web Services o IBM).

Another definition, interesting in my opinion, is that of the site Energy&Market: “Digital twins are digital representations of real physical systems. From which they receive data on a continuous cycle and whose behavior and transformations they replicate in real time. In short, digital twins capable of faithfully reproducing, instant by instant, the functioning of plants and networks, buildings and roads, but also extremely complex systems such as the human body, the city, an entire nation, even the world and one day, perhaps, even the universe”.

Atos Italy in partnership with The European House – Ambrosetti quantifies in 12 billion euros the volume of business that the Digital Twins could generate in Italy, making it possible to reduce emissions by 7% compared to 2021 values.

Volkswagen quantum computers

In the automotive industry, digital twin solutions reduce the waste of material enabling engineers to run simulations during the design process and test functions before prototyping, thereby reducing the number of physical prototypes needed.

Automotive twin

A recent survey by Altaira US company specializing in these technologies and listed on the Nasdaq, shows that of all the 11 sectors examined, the automotive industry is the second largest user of Digital Twin technology (76% of respondents), behind only the heavy equipment sector.

92% of the sample who said they use the Digital Twin then claim that this technology has helped them create products and processes more sustainablewhile the automotive sector was the most likely (63%) to use digital twin technologies to achieve sustainability goals.

Digital Twin technology, according to Altair, can help the automotive industry bring more electric vehicles to market faster and at affordable prices.

The Nissan factory in Smyrna

In fact, with the Digital Twin, cost reductions, better and more sustainable products and processes are obtained, generating energy savings and allowing an efficient use of resources.

Even in Italy there are companies specialized in Digital Twin technologies, ranging from the giant Leonardo (formerly Finmeccanica) alla start-up NEWTWENincubated in the Motor Valley accelerator in Modena