In order to design a quieter fan blade, German auto supplier Mahle analyzed parts of the animal kingdom with AI. "We learn from nature: It inspires us in many areas!" says Dr. Uli Christian Blessing, Head of Development Thermal Management at MAHLE. "With the help of AI, we analyzed the characteristic features of bats, swordfish, and many other inspirations from nature. We finally ended up with the owl, the silent hunter, as the main template for our new fan."

"The design of the fan blades was modeled on owl wings and feathers. This minimizes noise turbulence and makes the fan much more quiet and efficient. 'One can imagine the sound reduction power of our fan to be like that of turning off one of the speakers on a stereo system,' Blessing said."

The fan has been designed specifically for "particularly demanding" EVs and fuel cell vehicles, and is said to have 10% better performance and a 10% lighter design, as evinced by the generatively-designed support structure.

Interestingly, the design is scalable; Mahle will offer units as small as 300W, for use in small passenger cars, up to 35kW, for large trucks.