Emeritus professor Jim Saker, president of the Institute of the Motor Industry, wonders whethe the rapid advancement of technology might turn the exciting prospects of new cars into a flat experience on a par with white goods.
From the days of the town crier to the exaggerated click bait on social media headlines have always been designed to draw attention. Recently one post that stuck out for me was in the Financial Times. It simply read ‘Robots Only Half as Efficient as Humans says Leading Chinese Producer.’
I would have ignored it but for the picture underneath which was of UBTech’s humanoid robots working on an assembly line for the Chinese car manufacturer Zeekr.
The fact that the quote had come from the chief brand officer at the Shenzhen-based robot manufacturer was interesting, as it was identifying the current limitation to their own product’s performance.
Despite the he shortcomings, he identifies that car manufacturers are still racing to employ humanoid robots primarily because they are worried that rivals will beat them, especially in the form of Tesla if it achieves Musk’s ambition to have a full fully automated factory.
Back in 1979, Fiat ran a groundbreaking advert on TV stating that the Strada was hand built by robots. At the end of the 70s this claim was based on presenting vehicles that had been assembled on a production line with less human involvement and by inference less errors or faulty workmanship.
To be fair these robots were more like robotic arms as opposed to the humanoid robots that are being developed today. However, the message is not that dissimilar in that the belief that the machine makes less mistakes and as a result the product will be better.
The problem is that the humanoid robots present a more complex set of challenges than static arms or conveyor belts, as they require independent power supplies and, as with the human body, have more complex moving parts.
The obvious other shortfall comes from when, in their own expectation, the humanoid robot needs any form of advanced decision making, whether AI generated or not.
There is still some way to go before the humanoid robot can do what a normal human being can achieve when it comes to car manufacturing.
However, UBTech is looking for its Walker robots to operate at 80% of human performance by 2027, which they believe may be sufficient as robots don’t need to take breaks.
The assumption is that this will make commercial sense, but this has not been tested as most of the humanoid robot deployments have been in Chinese government sponsored research centres.
It is undoubtedly the future, but I do feel a sense of sadness that the car is becoming the equivalent of a white good that has little or no craftsmanship involved in its making.
One of the privileges I have is to be on the committee of the Fellowship of the Motor Industry, a group that looks to provide social meetings for people who are or have been involved in the industry. There are usually some visits to heritage car collections as part of the programme.
I am not sure that in the future there will be a massive demand to look at old cars that have come off a purely robotic production line.
Author: Professor Jim Saker