Humanoid robots could soon be working on the assembly lines at a BMW plant in the US. A pilot project is also underway at Mercedes. Which other industries might soon be making human workers obsolete?
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00:00Watch out! Robots like these are taking over at BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Amazon.
00:08But are they our new co-workers or competitors?
00:16It's crazy to see how fast this technology is advancing.
00:20Will millions of robots soon take our jobs?
00:24Hopefully not like this.
00:27Robots could soon be working as physiotherapists and much more.
00:31But are they really about to take over?
00:37At BMW's US plant, humanoid robots like Figure-02
00:41are testing their skills in car body construction,
00:44performing tasks similar to humans.
00:47We want to engage with this disruptive technology at a very early stage
00:52to understand how we can better use AI in our production systems
00:56and where it truly makes sense.
01:00Figure-02 costs an estimated 80,000 euros,
01:04with yearly maintenance at 4,000 euros.
01:08It can handle repetitive physically demanding tasks,
01:11but it is still fairly slow.
01:15We estimate it can perform about 40-50% as well as a human.
01:26But it's worth noting that the humanoid robot has some advantages.
01:30Apart from battery changes and occasional maintenance,
01:34it doesn't need breaks.
01:36It doesn't stop working after eight hours,
01:38which quickly brings down the average cost per hour.
01:42Before robots can get started,
01:45they need to be shown exactly what to do,
01:48a labor-intensive process.
01:50Even Tesla faces this set-up phase,
01:53and anything more than simple tasks is currently out of reach.
02:02In tasks requiring high variation or flexibility,
02:06robots still lag behind.
02:09And with complex tasks, not just simple motions
02:12like moving objects from A to B,
02:15they can't yet match human abilities.
02:26Robots and humans will need to collaborate in the future,
02:29but how can robots communicate effectively in everyday tasks?
02:34We hope communication will be intuitive,
02:38using natural language models,
02:41and some level of environmental understanding.
02:48China is planning to start producing assembly-line robots by 2025,
02:53though that may be optimistic.
02:57We're seeing large-scale applications ready for market
03:01within the next two to three years,
03:03likely by 2026 to 2028,
03:06with robots appearing in even greater numbers in industry.
03:13In any case, robots will need to be able to communicate
03:16and communicate with each other,
03:19and that's what we're working on.
03:26Robots will need to advance further,
03:28not just for simple tasks like this.
03:31The goal for the next generation of robots is autonomy.
03:35They should require minimal programming
03:38and ideally learn on their own through voice commands
03:41or observational learning,
03:44enabling BMW to automate tasks previously considered unachievable.
03:51It's hard to predict how many jobs robots will eventually replace.
03:55The auto industry aims to save millions on labor,
03:58but humans will still be needed in production,
04:01at least in the near future.
04:03Robots are on their way into our daily lives,
04:06and sooner than we might think.