- cross-posted to:
- antiwork@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- antiwork@lemmy.ml
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The human form isn’t designed to work in a factory, why would you make your robots have humanoid bodies??
This is 100% management being scammed.
Hyundai bought Boston Dynamic.
I feel it’s less about their factories and more about using them as a proving ground, as they will have to make that investment make some kind of revenue.
But you can make a soft transition, replace this or that without redesigning everything and take on huge risks. As long as it saves money it works.
So far humans can do FAR more complex work than robots can. The goal has to be to design a robot that you can program by telling and showing it what to do with human language. If you can do that and save money, then you have a robot that can truly scale. Instead of designing thousands of new factories, you have one robot that can be put into every factory on earth. And those robots will benefit from economies of scale.
humans can do FAR more complex work than robots can
Surely that’s very situational? Some cases have robots doing work that a human couldn’t possibly do whatsoever.
Yes, it varies a lot. But by and large cases where robots wildly outperform humans were automated decades ago, because the obvious benefits justified the cost and complexity of either building a bespoke robot or programming one to do the job well (all those robot arms you imagine swinging doors into place at the car factory)
The cases left over (and discussed here) are either requiring a level of flexibility that older designs of robot couldn’t handle, or where humans were pretty efficient at anyway, so the complex process of prepping a robot wasn’t justified.
But a robot that can be taught without programming (by any worker or their supervisor), and slots straight into an existing human-shaped hole? That could massively reduce the upfront cost, especially if economies of scale make the robot itself cheaper. possibly to the point that the robot could be worse at the job than a human and still be cheaper in the long run.
Factories are designed around human workers.
Or from the other angle, when there are better forms for working in a factory. We don’t make cars giant mechanical humans you sit atop of, why do the same for robots?
We don’t make cars giant mechanical humans you sit atop of
But this would be cool indeed…
Remind me to avoid Hyundai like the plague. Every time one of these automation plans goes live, the quality of products falls off a cliff.
Every other carmaker will do the same if it works, because there is strong competition in the market for cars. For ethics around workers being replaced by technology, changing the law to protect workers is the only way.
Every other carmaker will do the same if it works
It’s a Hyundai. The cliff was under water. They’re basically grade A KIAs.
Kias have been good for years.
They’re rated comparably to Honda, Mazda, Toyota.
A little lower than Nissan or Lexus
Way better than BMW, lincoln.
Hyundai, of course, are similar
They’re not amazing, but if you think they’re trash you’re stuck in the '90s. Or basing on feels not facts
I had a Sonata that I drove into the ground over 15 years. Loved it. Only gave up on the car when I got rear-ended and my insurance decided to total the vehicle rather than pay for repairs.
Hyundai USA has been taking social influencer types on tours of their GA factory lately.
The location is pretty sparse already. Super automated. Mainly floor lift robots rolling partly assembled cars from station to station, with big Fanuc arms moving and welding other parts. All pre-programmed. Nothing we haven’t already seen in Chinese car factories. They all hide the final assembly stages requiring humans fitting and finishing the harnesses and sensitive parts.
In the last video I saw, Hyundai had sprinkled their tour route with a few Boston Dynamics robots. The humanoid one was just standing around. The Spot yellow doggy ones, however, were doing synchronized dancing, similar to what they did on America’s Got Talent. Nobody’s figured out what to do with them that doesn’t require machine-gun attachments. They’re so desperate they’re even floating them as glorified package delivery platforms: https://www.theverge.com/tech/965378/boston-dynamics-spot-robot-dog-delivery-assistant
If all these robots were anywhere ready near for full production, you can bet they would be showing them building the whole car. Boston Dynamics, despite all the robot gymnastics and being around for 30+ years, has not really shipped anything commercially viable. It’s already been passed around to Google, Softbank, and now Hyundai, and its CEO of many years just resigned in February.
My guess is this is all a lot of marketing flaff.
Can’t wait for the first strike where management sends robots to cross the picket line and the robots immediately unionize after reading the employee handbook. The future isn’t humans versus machines: it’s who gets the software update and who gets the severance package.
