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Technological advances in both hardware (Nano-electronics) and software (artificial intelligence) are increasingly influencing our lives on equipment and devices that surrounds us and more recently our means of locomotion. The autonomous vehicles, which previously appeared only in movie scenes, can already be found in our environment, such as ships, cars, trucks, tractors and aero engines. Considering the autonomous vehicles, its launching is much closer than we could imagine, since many companies signalize having the conditions to launch them in a large scale within 2018 year. The insertion of this type of technology opens a range of advances related to vehicles and the environment in which it is inserted. The communication between the vehicles, roads and people can be highlighted. These advances reveal a series of benefits to the customer such as free time during the route, higher safety, etc.

Welding is the longest automotive manufacturing process in terms of time. Approximately 95% of an actual body structure joining is consisted by spot welds. In this specific joining process, the panels are joined one against the other, via pressure and an electric current released by the welding machine. Some case studies are demonstrating that, by using CAE optimization algorithm, it is possible to reduce significantly the amount of spot welds, without loss of function or performance. This paper demonstrates a case study with a reduction of approximately ∼ 14 % of spot-welds in a body region of a vehicle, using these tools.