The world’s first car factory to build vehicles with no human input could go online by 2030, according to industry experts, who have tipped two nations to be the leaders.
Automotive News reports industry analysts from both Gartner and Warburg Research believe there will be at least one carmaker building cars with robot-only production lines within the next four years, marking a big shift for the manufacturing world.
According to Pedro Pacheco, vice president of research at Gartner, a brand in either the US or China will be the first to bring a fully automated assembly line online “toward the end of this decade”, given both nations feature carmakers which “are already setting up disruptive manufacturing processes and reveal more of a focus on humanoid robots.”
Fabio Hölscher, analyst for Warburg Research, added it’s “not unrealistic” to expect China will launch its first robot-only car factory by 2030, with no mention on if the US could also do so.
Should a fully autonomous car factory go online by the end of the decade, it would represent a seismic shift in automotive manufacturing, with the industry only having started to truly embrace robots in the 1980s.
Of course, the robots being used are changing too, as carmakers now look to the next-generation, human-like ‘humanoids’ being developed by rising tech giants.
According to the Automotive News reports, almost half of the top 25 carmakers are running pilots for advanced robotics in their plants, though at present the stumbling block is the installation of interior components and complex wiring harnesses.
Regardless, it is being claimed the adoption of advanced robotics in car factories, and making the process fully automated, could lead to a reduction in prices for new cars – though with the obvious trade-off being a reduced human workforce.
“Those employees may be reallocated to other support functions like maintenance, engineering, logistics and material handling or inspection,” Pacheco added.
Currently, Hyundai is arguably the leader in the industry, having recently announced its plans to add humanoid robots to its upcoming Georgia EV factory in 2028, supplied by Boston Dynamics.
Likewise, Mercedes-Benz is already running a pilot program at its digital factory campus in Berlin.
“Mercedes-Benz Berlin-Marienfelde remains at the cutting edge of automotive production and keeps Germany on the map as a global centre for innovation,” Jörg Burzer, Mercedes board member responsible for production, quality and supply chain management said last year.
“Artificial Intelligence and humanoid robots open up an exciting new frontier which make automotive production more sustainable, efficient and more intelligent.”
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