Following Tesla, BMW Will Use Humanoid Robots in Its U.S. Car Factories

Following Tesla, BMW has joined the humanoid robot fleet, with pilot applications at its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. A California startup called Figure developed the humanoid robot, called Figure 01, and struck a deal with BMW to deploy "universal humanoid robots" in automotive manufacturing.

Although car manufacturing has long been automated, traditional industrial robots are mostly limited to single tasks, such as moving doors and welding body parts. Figure's humanoid robots, on the other hand, are capable of performing a variety of tedious and dangerous tasks, freeing the hands of human workers. Brett Adcock, founder and CEO of Figure, said the technology will increase productivity, reduce costs, and create a safer, more stable production environment.

BMW and Figure will first evaluate the feasibility of integrating robots into existing processes, and then gradually introduce them to the Spartanburg plant to handle the production of the X3, X4, X5, X6, X7 and XM series SUVs.

The 1.7-meter-tall Figure 01 robot can carry a weight of 20 kilograms, run for 5 hours on a full charge, and walk at a speed of 4.4 km/h. Figure plans to use the robot in a variety of areas, including warehousing, logistics and retail.

IT House notes that Tesla is also developing a similar robotic humanoid robot, Optimus, which it plans to use for manual labor in factories. Elon Musk even thinks Optimus could one day be a personal butler and has said Tesla's robotics division will surpass the car business in the future.

Notably, the rise of automation and electric vehicles is already a threat to employment in the automotive manufacturing industry because electric vehicles are simpler and require less labor. If humanoid robots become smart, flexible, and cost-effective enough to be used at scale, the automotive industry's human resources could shrink further. However, Figure says on its website that there are currently 10 million job openings in the United States, and it believes robots can fill jobs that people don't want to do.

However, robots will not fully take over complex manufacturing processes overnight. Figure's robot has just learned how to make coffee, using the simplest of Keurig coffee machines. But impressively, it learned this skill just by watching humans operate it for 10 hours.