The Scoop
Carmakers are getting their first taste of paid robot workers.
Toyota’s Canadian manufacturing plant is leasing seven humanoid robots from Oregon-based Agility Robotics to perform physical tasks that typically require humans, according to two people familiar with the matter. Agility’s turquoise, grasshopper-legged robots are able to move more freely than the traditional arm-like machines that assemble cars. They will transport bins of car components to and from conveyor belts and robotic carts — the kind of repetitive, manual job that manufacturers have trouble filling, the sources said.
The integration followed a successful yearlong test of the robots at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, the carmaker’s second-largest manufacturing operation outside of Japan.
It is an example of how AI-powered robots can automate production bottlenecks for companies — and eventually threaten a significant share of blue-collar jobs, experts warn. Meanwhile, humanoid companies are in a technology race to dominate a market poised to reach as much as $50 billion in the next decade and $1.7 trillion by 2050. It’s also a fiercely competitive market for smaller players like Agility; they face larger, buzzier big tech companies like Tesla, with its default network of customers and a boisterous CEO who can sway the market.
It is unclear how much TMMC is paying for the integration, though Agility’s CEO previously said the robots would surpass their return on investment in less than two years, compared to a human working for $30 per hour.
Agility declined to comment. TMMC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Know More
Agility is among several humanoid makers partnering with car companies, which are largely seen as the first big beneficiary of robots at this stage in the bots’ development. Toyota Research Institute has worked with Boston Dynamics to help it develop humanoids using the research group’s behavior models. Separately, Figure AI bots helped produce 30,000 BMW cars at a South Carolina plant during an 11-month span, according to the company.
And such partnerships are also driving investments. Mercedes-Benz recently backed Apptronik in a $520 million raise alongside Google, and Hyundai owns a majority stake in Boston Dynamics with plans to deploy “tens of thousands” of robots at its facilities.
Still, many deployments have been trials rather than paid production work — Agility’s integration with TMMC is among the first — and the efficacy of the robots has been limited. Even Elon Musk said last month that Tesla’s Optimus robots are “not in usage in our factories in a material way.”
Notable
- Some humanoid companies are taking steps to make their robots appear more approachable, in a bid to spur connections between humans and the bots, Semafor reported.