The Robot Worker Is Coming: Car Makers Test Humanoids on Factory Floors

The next generation of factory workers may not look like workers at all. Across the automotive industry, carmakers are testing humanoid robots that can move around production floors, pick up components, transport materials and perform repetitive tasks traditionally handled by people.

The shift is already visible at BMW's manufacturing operations. At its Spartanburg plant in South Carolina, BMW has been testing humanoid robots from California-based Figure AI, while its Leipzig factory in Germany has begun a separate pilot involving AEON, a humanoid system developed with Hexagon Robotics. The company says the technology is being tested for tasks including battery-module assembly and component manufacturing.

The machines are still far from replacing human factory workers wholesale. During a recent demonstration at BMW's Spartanburg facility, one humanoid robot moved deliberately across the floor, picked an automotive component from a container, placed it into a trolley and pulled the trolley away. BMW executives acknowledged that the robots remain slower than people, even as their capabilities are improving rapidly.

But speed is not the only attraction. Unlike traditional industrial robots, which are normally fixed in place and designed for highly specific movements, humanoid machines are being developed to operate in environments already designed around the human body. They can potentially use existing aisles, workstations, tools and equipment without requiring factories to be completely redesigned.

That flexibility is one reason the world's biggest carmakers are taking the technology seriously. BMW says its Figure 02 robot worked for 10 months at Spartanburg, supporting production of more than 30,000 BMW X3 vehicles and moving more than 90,000 components. The company says the robot completed about 1.2 million steps during roughly 1,250 operating hours.

Renault is also experimenting with a different approach. The French automaker has partnered with robotics company Wandercraft to develop Calvin, a robot designed to walk, lift heavy loads and adapt to its surroundings. Renault describes the project as one of the early efforts by an automotive manufacturer to introduce this new generation of robotics directly into production.

The technology is advancing beyond movement as well. Modern humanoid robots are increasingly equipped with cameras, microphones, sensors and AI systems designed to understand their surroundings and respond to instructions. BMW's earlier Figure 02 trials, for example, included voice communication and the ability to carry out tasks requiring precise gripping and two-handed coordination.

That is where the phrase "walk and talk" becomes important. The long-term ambition is not simply to build machines that can walk on two legs, but systems capable of understanding instructions, recognising objects, planning movements and adapting when something goes wrong. The industry increasingly describes this combination of artificial intelligence and physical machines as physical AI.

Yet the gap between an impressive demonstration and dependable mass production remains substantial. Robots may perform a carefully selected task successfully but still struggle when conditions change, an object is positioned differently or an unexpected obstacle appears. Robotics researchers and industry executives continue to identify dexterity, safety, adaptability and the ability to recover from mistakes as major barriers to widespread deployment.

China is pushing particularly hard in this area. The country produced the vast majority of the world's humanoid robot shipments in 2025, according to a recent Reuters investigation, while government subsidies and industrial investment are accelerating the development of domestic companies. But Reuters also found that many Chinese humanoids remain slow and unreliable when faced with tasks outside tightly controlled routines.

The economic question is therefore becoming just as important as the technological one. Automakers are looking at humanoids partly because they could eventually perform physically demanding, repetitive or ergonomically difficult work for long periods. For workers, that could mean relief from some of the most exhausting jobs. It could also mean pressure on employment if robots eventually become capable of performing a much wider range of tasks at competitive cost.

That tension is already emerging. Hyundai's plans to deploy Boston Dynamics' Atlas humanoid robots have generated resistance from organized labour in South Korea, with workers raising concerns about automation and its effect on jobs. Hyundai has said it intends to expand its use of robotics, including plans for US robot production from 2028.

For now, the more realistic picture is one of collaboration rather than an immediate robot takeover. Automakers are using pilot projects to discover where humanoids make economic and operational sense, while engineers work out how to integrate them safely into production systems.

The significance of this shift extends well beyond the car industry. The automobile factory has historically been one of the world's great laboratories for automation, and the technologies perfected there often spread into other industries. If humanoid robots can move from slow demonstrations to reliable, affordable machines that understand instructions and adapt to real-world conditions, the factory floor could become the testing ground for a new generation of AI, one that does not merely generate words or images, but physically acts on the world around it. The race now is not simply to build robots that look human; it is to make them useful enough to earn a permanent place beside humans at work.