Robots That Walk and Talk Are Coming To Car Factories (nytimes.com)
(Friday August 14, 2026 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the efficiency-gains dept.)
- Reference: 0184977507
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/08/14/215204/robots-that-walk-and-talk-are-coming-to-car-factories
- Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/11/business/humanoid-robots-car-factories.html
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times:
> At a BMW factory in South Carolina, a human-shaped robot with a screen for a face recently stepped from a charging station toward a stack of green plastic boxes. It grasped an auto part from one of the boxes, pivoted, placed the part in a trolley, then pulled the trolley across the floor. The robot's slow, stiff movements suggested a worker with a bad hangover rather than a technological revolution. "They're still slower than humans," Ulrich Wieland, a BMW vice president in charge of logistics at the factory, in Spartanburg, told reporters invited to see the robot in June. But, he added, "they're advancing fast."
>
> Automakers have used robots for decades, but they are usually powerful, one-armed machines that are fixed in place and perform repetitive tasks like welding body frames or applying adhesives to door panels. Now, most major automakers are betting that robots designed to resemble human beings, known as humanoids, will usher in a new wave of automation and efficiency. Equipped with artificial intelligence, they are [1]expected to move around and do tasks now done by humans without any modifications to factories or heavy equipment.
>
> Unlike most of the robots now in use, humanoids would respond to voice commands and theoretically solve problems and react to unforeseen events. They would never take a lunch break, join a union or require health insurance. To optimists, robots could rescue U.S. manufacturing by increasing productivity, solving shortages of skilled workers and giving Western carmakers a fighting chance at competing with Chinese rivals that enjoy lower costs. Boring but important jobs like sorting parts would be done by robots, freeing humans for more interesting and specialized work.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/11/business/humanoid-robots-car-factories.html
> At a BMW factory in South Carolina, a human-shaped robot with a screen for a face recently stepped from a charging station toward a stack of green plastic boxes. It grasped an auto part from one of the boxes, pivoted, placed the part in a trolley, then pulled the trolley across the floor. The robot's slow, stiff movements suggested a worker with a bad hangover rather than a technological revolution. "They're still slower than humans," Ulrich Wieland, a BMW vice president in charge of logistics at the factory, in Spartanburg, told reporters invited to see the robot in June. But, he added, "they're advancing fast."
>
> Automakers have used robots for decades, but they are usually powerful, one-armed machines that are fixed in place and perform repetitive tasks like welding body frames or applying adhesives to door panels. Now, most major automakers are betting that robots designed to resemble human beings, known as humanoids, will usher in a new wave of automation and efficiency. Equipped with artificial intelligence, they are [1]expected to move around and do tasks now done by humans without any modifications to factories or heavy equipment.
>
> Unlike most of the robots now in use, humanoids would respond to voice commands and theoretically solve problems and react to unforeseen events. They would never take a lunch break, join a union or require health insurance. To optimists, robots could rescue U.S. manufacturing by increasing productivity, solving shortages of skilled workers and giving Western carmakers a fighting chance at competing with Chinese rivals that enjoy lower costs. Boring but important jobs like sorting parts would be done by robots, freeing humans for more interesting and specialized work.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/11/business/humanoid-robots-car-factories.html
A specious assumption, on the face of it (Score:2)
by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 )
> To optimists, robots could rescue U.S. manufacturing by increasing productivity, solving shortages of skilled workers and giving Western carmakers a fighting chance at competing with Chinese rivals that enjoy lower costs.
American auto manufacturers exclusively make cars which have very little marketability other than in the U.S. itself. "Increasing productivity" and "solving shortages of skilled workers" is not going to magically make the Chinese or Koreans want to buy lots of F-250s.
No, the robots are coming for assembly too (Score:2)
I find it hard to believe that sorting parts and delivering them to work stations is not already automated. These robots are going to be used for experimenting with assembly tasks. The humanoid form providing more options for experiments. Ultimately the robots for various assembly tasks will be high specialized like the welders.