BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time • Hacker News Board

Re: BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time

#81

Post by testing22321 » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 3:21 AM UTC

torginus wrote: post #35

dmix wrote: post #24

Seems to be this European robotics company https://robotics.hexagon.com/product/ https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/hexagon-robotics-ai-software-a...

My prediction is that by the time humanoid robots actually make it to the factory floor, they'll be pretty un-humanoid. 90% of car manufacturing is done by oldschool industrial robots, and I've had people point out that heavy use of industrial robots are basically unique to the car industry. You might see a robot arm here and there in other industries, but it's somewhat rare, usually its all purpose-built machines or…

I toured a major US OEM assembly plant recently, and there were a TON of humans working insanely repetitive tasks.

The most kind numbing of all were the easiest (sit in chair and put bolts upright in holder so robot can pick them up) and the highest paid thanks to union seniority.

The UAW will kill all the US OEMs before that let robots replace all the humans.

Re: BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time

#82

Post by MBCook » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 3:28 AM UTC

avaer wrote: post #70

Not sure this counts as "humanoid" any more than the robots we've had in factories for a century... the hands and feet are nothing like a human's, and would not be improved by being more human. It seems they just made the shape of their machine have a vaguely human silhouette so they could ride a hype wave. I'm all for programmable humanoid robots, humans are an awesome human interface, but this ain't it.

That’s generally what it seemed like to me too. Seemed to be human shaped so they could say it’s humanoid… and nothing else.

Nothing in the video looked like it couldn’t be done by a more industrial robot shaped robot. And I bet that would be cheaper or easier to make.

Then I started reading the text. When I got to the part very early on about deploying “Physical AI” that confirmed it to me.

This all seems to be “humanoid washing”. Nothing terribly interesting that someone put a special coat of paint on to get attention.

I’d love to be proven wrong. But the video certainly didn’t show it. And I didn’t notice it in the press release, though it was hard to parse past the ridiculously over the top language that did nothing but obscure what was actually going on.

Probably because there’s not much going on.

Re: BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time

#83

Post by ofrzeta » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 4:12 AM UTC

Let me first comment that this is just another publicity stunt and that there will be no useful humanoids in BMW factories in the near future. Then I will read TFA and get back here.

Re: BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time

#84

Post by analog31 » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 4:12 AM UTC

wenc wrote: post #63

Maxion wrote: post #23

Whenever I hear german companies mention digitalisation, I get reminded that they still use pen and pencil in production environments to log data, pass those sheets to secreteries who enter the data into legacy systems so data analysts can enter it into another system that then has an integration with SAP. Data from SAP then flows onwards to some buzzword filled Azure product that costs a few million a month from whi…

I used to work for the US side of a German multinational (one of the largest in the world) and discovered the same thing when it came to software. The German side always had slick presentations (they always had good visual marketing) and impressive claims, but whenever I tried to work with their products, I always found the claims overstated and that they hadn't really executed deeply. This despite my German counterp…

I wonder if anybody's manufacturing was great before the Japanese quality revolution. It took Germany longer than the US to adopt modern quality control. Granted, Germany did a lot of it, for instance their chemical industries were staggering.

I've formed the impression that every country's engineering and design cultures are essentially aesthetics.

Re: BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time

#85

Post by SoftTalker » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 4:18 AM UTC

estearum wrote: post #66

Maxion wrote: post #23

Whenever I hear german companies mention digitalisation, I get reminded that they still use pen and pencil in production environments to log data, pass those sheets to secreteries who enter the data into legacy systems so data analysts can enter it into another system that then has an integration with SAP. Data from SAP then flows onwards to some buzzword filled Azure product that costs a few million a month from whi…

This describes large companies everywhere I encountered oil wells essentially controlled by post-it notes passed around an office.

I distinctly remember reading that the entire bill of materials for building a Boeing 747 was managed in Excel. I have not been able to find that claim since then but it was so amazing to me that I remember it.

It doesn't really make sense as I think about it now, because the 747 design predates Excel by many years so maybe it was BS.

Re: BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time

#86

Post by carefree-bob » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 4:30 AM UTC

cuvinny wrote: post #69

Looks like they already have been testing it in the Spartanburg, SC, USA plant (just outside of Greenville SC [also I think the largest BMW factory in the world making most of their SUVs]). Still I don't get why a humanoid robot would be a thing for car making, a robot arm seems like it'd almost always be more efficient.

Auto manufacturers have been using robots for decades to paint, weld, machine, cast, and manufacture critical automobile components and even entire chassis.

Some auto robot porn: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Zi8EWZptTfA

The idea of humanoid looking robots shuffling around a factory floor seems like a gimmick to me.

Re: BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time

#87

Post by Shitty-kitty » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 4:35 AM UTC

asdff wrote: post #62

Seems so funny to me that we are building llms to write in english code for computers. And building robots to perform some automated processes in the shape of humans. When are we going to rip the bandaid off, and skip bothering with the ux layer built for humans? I guess that is just old fashioned 20th century factory style automation that doesn't get headlines written about it, at least not in these decades.

The humanoid-like robots are designed for existing prouction-lines that can't be easily shut-down and retooled/reconfigured.

Re: BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time

#88

Post by hnburnsy » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 5:01 AM UTC

A union in Germany is fighting Tesla over this same thing...

>. In 2026, Giga Berlin is the pilot site for the "Optimus" Gen-3 integration—humanoid robots performing repetitive tasks in the battery pack assembly area. IG Metall views this not as progress, but as a threat to job security.

https://www.teslaacessories.com/blogs/news/the-giga-berlin-s...

Re: BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time

#89

Post by throwaway2037 » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 5:01 AM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #85

estearum wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This describes large companies everywhere I encountered oil wells essentially controlled by post-it notes passed around an office.

I distinctly remember reading that the entire bill of materials for building a Boeing 747 was managed in Excel. I have not been able to find that claim since then but it was so amazing to me that I remember it. It doesn't really make sense as I think about it now, because the 747 design predates Excel by many years so maybe it was BS.

Assume that later models of the 747 were managed in Excel. No trolling: What is wrong with that? You can write insanely powerful software using (1) formulas on the sheet (which are essentially functional programming) and (2) imperative logic in VBA (HTTP calls, database calls, file system, etc.). For years, I used this model and wrote pretty powerful software. Sometimes, I miss it for the encapsulated system. These days, in "biz dev" (internal software), it seems like the Excel model was replaced with an Electron front-end (HTML/CSS/JS) with Java back-end.

Re: BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time

#90

Post by hnburnsy » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 5:03 AM UTC

u1hcw9nx wrote: post #6

dataviz1000 wrote: post #2

Here is a 60 Minutes piece showing Boston Dynamics Atlas working in a car factory in the United States. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ISdRkS37I

Hyundai vs BMW, where is Tesla?

Posted elsewhere in this discussion...

>The Automation Factor Tesla’s response to labor pressure has always been more automation. In 2026, Giga Berlin is the pilot site for the "Optimus" Gen-3 integration—humanoid robots performing repetitive tasks in the battery pack assembly area.

https://www.teslaacessories.com/blogs/news/the-giga-berlin-s...