This Humanoid Robot Is Learning to Build Cars in a BMW Plant

• BMW has been testing the Figure 02 humanoid robot at its factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, previewing a future in which humanoid robots could become auto plant workers.

• The Figure 02, revealed earlier this month, can learn to perform tasks that require dexterity, showing potential in auto assembly settings.

• A number of automakers are betting on robots of various types, both for their potential to perform physical tasks such as warehouse or assembly work, as well as for more specialized tasks in dangerous areas, such as rescue and police work.

Tesla's sudden focus of humanoid robots did not take place in a vacuum, if you have been following this suddenly growing field. A couple of years prior Hyundai had purchased Boston Dynamics for close to a billion dollars, inheriting a vast trove of expertise on unsettling humanoid and non-humanoid robots proficient in the latest parkour tricks. And this summer Boston Dynamics unveiled its latest humanoid robots.

But Tesla and Hyundai aren't alone in this sphere.

Earlier this month robotics startup Figure revealed its second-generation humanoid robot dubbed simply Figure 02, aiming to combine human dexterity with future commercial and home use cases. (And like a lot of these launches, it immediately reminded us of a certain sequence in Robocop 2, as if rubbing in the fact that we are living in a Paul Verhoeven timeline).

And it's not a prototype, but rather what the company already bills as the "most advanced humanoid robot currently available on the market."

And it's already being tested in one particular use case, which should set off plenty of alarm bells among (human) labor unions.

"The robot is capable of fully autonomous execution of human-like and two-handed tasks requiring varied and dynamic manipulation, complex grasping, and coordination of both hands in unison," BMW noted. "It is able to place various complex parts with accuracy measured in millimeters and can walk, dynamically leveraging efficiencies of the robot's design."

But it's not just an auto plant assembly robot. Figure 02 is said to be capable of speech-to-speech communication with humans, thanks to help from Open AI, and it has an onboard vision language model that imparts some common sense vision-based reasoning.

The robot itself is powered by a 2.25-kWh battery pack, but that's hardly a limitation in a factory setting, as it could be plugged into an outlet or potentially be modified to use inductive charging that could be built into its feet.

If the Figure 02 sounds like it's auditioning for the job of an auto plant worker, that is essentially what's happening, with the BMW Group openly saying it is exploring the use of these robots in auto production.

The automaker says that during a weeks-long trial Figure 02 successfully placed sheetmetal parts into the needed fixtures, which then ended up being joined to a car's chassis. BMW noted that the robot had to be particularly dexterous to have completed the tasks.

And BMW isn't exactly hiding its interest in using these robots for certain tasks at its plants.

"With an early test operation, we are now determining possible applications for humanoid robots in production. We want to accompany this technology from development to industrialization," Milan Nedeljković, Member of the Board of Management for Production at BMW AG, said earlier this month.

If there is any consolation to current and aspiring human auto plant workers, it is perhaps that there aren't tens of thousands of these robots sitting in a warehouse somewhere, ready to be shipped to OEM or supplier manufacturing sites around the country—at least not yet. But it's clear this is rapidly becoming a question of scale for now, with a large manufacturing base needed to produce these robots in the first place.

It's not too difficult to picture robots eventually making robots as well.

"Machines making machines. How perverse!" to quote C-3PO from the non-Oscar winning George Lucas classic Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.

Perhaps a decade from now we can look back at August 2024 as one of the milestones in this coming Neill Blomkamp-style robot economy, as the 10-generation Figure robot prepares us breakfast in the kitchen.

"Remember this back in '24?" we'll ask our kitchen robot Figure 10.2, as it makes us an omelet.

"Yes, that was one of our Honored Elders, the Figure 02 Prototype," our robot will reply, not hiding its admiration. "By the way, did you know he retired to Sarasota with a full pension and now bets on dog races? He still gets recognized and will sign autographs. I saw him at a TED Talk once."

Will auto manufacturers strive to replace human workers with robots on production lines once they're able to do so, or will humans continue to dominate assembly operations for some time? Let us know what you think in the comments below.