BMW puts humanoid robots to work in its factory — they're slow but learning fast

At a BMW plant in South Carolina, journalists were recently shown a human-shaped robot with a screen for a face. The machine steps off its charging station, picks an auto part from a stack of green plastic boxes, pivots, places the part into a trolley and then pulls the trolley across the floor. Its slow, stiff movements look more like a worker with a bad hangover than a technological breakthrough.

Ulrich Wieland, BMW's vice president in charge of logistics at the Spartanburg factory, acknowledged that the robots are still slower than human workers — but he stressed that they are advancing quickly. Automakers have relied on industrial robots for decades, yet those are typically powerful, single-armed machines bolted in place, performing repetitive jobs such as welding body frames or applying adhesives to door panels.

Now most major car manufacturers are betting that humanoids — robots designed to resemble people — will bring a new wave of automation and efficiency. Equipped with artificial intelligence, these machines are expected to move around plants and handle tasks currently done by humans, without requiring any modifications to factories or heavy equipment. Unlike conventional robots, humanoids would respond to voice commands, solve problems on the fly and react to unexpected events. They would never take a lunch break, join a union or need health insurance.

For optimists, humanoids could rescue U.S. manufacturing by lifting productivity, easing shortages of skilled labor and giving Western carmakers a real chance in global competition.