Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Thursday, Jan. 15.
There was a time when the notion of a car being built completely by robots seemed like a sci-fi fantasy — or at least a vision of a far-flung future. However, that future may not be that far away, according to analysts at Gartner and Warburg Research.
It could arrive by 2030. Four years from now.
A U.S. or Chinese automaker will likely be the first to create a 100 percent assembly automation line "toward the end of this decade," Pedro Pacheco, Gartner vice president of research, told Automotive News Europe's Lois Jones.
Warburg Research analyst Fabio Hölscher said it is "not unrealistic" to expect to see the first fully "dark" automotive factory — where everything is done by robots — in China by 2030.
The shift could fundamentally reshape auto industry labor and manufacturing costs.
Hyundai and Mercedes are just two of the automakers that are undertaking projects that deploy humanoid robots. That's just scratching the surface.
The advancements shown at last week's CES would add to the suggestion that artificial intelligence, humanoid robotics and digital manufacturing will converge to eliminate nearly all human roles from the assembly process.
For further insights into why this is possible, read Jones' report here.
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— Omari Gardner, managing editor, operations
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