There has been a rash of articles this year pertaining to how the automotive industry has begun testing humanoid robots. The subtext is that they may soon be used to replace actual humans on the assembly line. But are these bipedal robots actually ready to take over or are they simply being leveraged to prime tech-focused investments and keep employees on their toes?
Automation is nothing new. Decades after standardized tooling and implementation of the assembly line created a surge in manufacturing jobs, workers grew concerned that robots would eventually come to replace them. While there is still some debate about whether or not widespread automation actually resulted in fewer jobs overall, it certainly has required less human hands for repetitive tasks. We likewise see a gradual decline in the number of assembly jobs since the automotive sector became the first industry to both develop and implement robotic arms at factories (e.g. General Motors’ “Unimate”).
Read Article