2026-05-29 12:00:32
BMW is set to use humanoid robots for car manufacturing in Europe for the first time.
The German car manufacturer has announced that two robots, made by Hexagon Robotics, will soon begin working in the company’s production sector.
Michael Nikolaides, the head of process management and digitalisation at BMW, told the BBC: “This will be the future of automotive production.”
Nikolaides explained BMW’s decision to use human-shaped robots for car production.
He said: “If you have a humanoid form, you can pretty much set it to any workplace where a human is working today because it has the same size and the same capabilities.”
Nikolaides believes robots will help to overcome a labour shortage in the coming years.
He explained: “We know that staff will be short in a matter of years, and humanised robots help.
“When we automised the production of cars in the ’70s, everybody said this will lead to a lot of job losses, but the opposite was the case. There were new jobs created by this new technology, and that’s the way we look at [humanoid robots].”
Meanwhile, Bill Ray, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, explained that the cost of robots has fallen markedly in recent years.
He said: “When a robot costs 17 million, you’d re-organise your factory around the robot, but it doesn’t anymore.
“So now you want to fit it into your existing way of working.”
Despite this, Ray believes the potential impact of robots in other areas of life may have been overstated.
He said: “The primary use case for a humanoid robot today is to walk on stage and artificially inflate your share price. Robots dancing or whatever: That’s not that difficult to do.
“When you see a humanoid robot walking, you assume it can run, it can climb, it can jump. It can’t do any of those things, but your brain fills in those gaps. We’re having unrealistic expectations when people deploy these robots.”
Visit Bang Premier (main website)
