Maybe we'll see vast car factories, churning out thousands of cars per day, with only a half dozen staff in years to come?
Maybe we'll see vast car factories, churning out thousands of cars per day, with only a half dozen staff in years to come?
The limitations in car production are always the component supply chain, not the actual manufacture.
GM is of course tied in with the UAW, so they're going to be as favorable to labor as possible in their promo videos, but take a look at this video of one of their production facilities, this is reflective of the amount of manual input into modern automotive production:
But to see how much robots actually do nowadays, compare that to auto assembly from decades ago when robots were new, or further back when they did not exist
Especially customisation and snapping delicate plastic trim pieces in place is still done by hand.
My rule of thumb is that there is about 10% of manufacture cost that are direct or indirect cost connected to payroll.
If I may add another axis of reflexion that I consider fundamental for modern engineers to consider, food for machines for producing a car (44% natural gas when smithing things) is about 15 to 25% of the energy cost to use the car in its lifetime, according to the EU. Or about 2,400 euro of a 8L/100km car.
So in a world where energy gets more expensive, automation needs to definitely evolve, but not solely to be faster or replace more humans.
Looking at the wider group, I would think there's lots of roles for robotics in construction. Delivery of heavy items across uneven terrain or up stairs - may be something like a robotic hod carrier.
Also from my last visit at an assembly plant ~5 years ago, most plants are still on large conveyors vs. driving individual vehicles around the plant, and materials handling is still in the 90's with little stripe-following tugs slowly moving about the place.