BMW introduces humanoid robots to European car plant as global automation race accelerates

BMW is beginning to introduce humanoid robots at a car plant in Europe, part of a broader push that the company says could make humanoid machines a key part of the future of car manufacturing, according to the BBC. The move builds on similar work in the United States and comes as automakers, robotics firms and investors race to turn humanoids from eye-catching demos into useful factory tools.

The announcement comes against the backdrop of a growing industry push to commercialize humanoid robots. Bloomberg reported that the Tokyo Humanoids Summit has drawn companies, builders and investors from around the world to discuss live demonstrations, mass production and safety, underscoring how quickly the field is moving from spectacle to scale. Bloomberg Intelligence has said humanoids could become the next major technology platform over the coming decade.

At the summit, executives described a global race in which different countries bring different strengths. Honda’s Takahide Yoshiike said Chinese companies are best at lowering production costs for humanoid robots, the United States leads in AI chip development, and Japan has an edge in precise, high-quality hardware, according to Bloomberg. Brendan Schulman of Boston Dynamics also argued that the United States and its companies need a clearer robotics strategy if they want to keep pace with deployment in China and Japan.

Google DeepMind’s robotics chief, Carolina Parada, told Bloomberg that “embodied intelligence” is the next frontier of artificial intelligence, highlighting work aimed at giving robots better physical skills such as folding origami or packing a lunch box. Her comments reflect a broader industry belief that recent progress in AI can now be applied to machines that operate in the physical world, not just on screens.

The manufacturing push is also being supported by a fast-growing supply chain. Wired reported on LinkerBot, a Chinese startup making dexterous robotic hands for as little as $600, an example of how suppliers are trying to make humanoid hardware cheaper and more adaptable for factories. That kind of pricing pressure matters because cost has been one of the biggest barriers to putting humanoid robots into large-scale industrial use.

For BMW and other automakers, the appeal is practical: humanoid robots could eventually handle repetitive, physically demanding or hard-to-automate tasks on assembly lines. But the industry still faces major hurdles, including safety, reliability, and the challenge of scaling production from prototype systems to machines that can work continuously in busy factories. Bloomberg’s coverage of the Tokyo summit showed that even as interest surges, much of the debate is still about how to commercialize the technology and prove it can work at industrial scale.

What happens next will depend on whether early factory pilots can deliver real productivity gains. BMW’s trial in Europe will be watched closely by rivals and robotics developers alike, because success there could help determine whether humanoid robots remain a futuristic demonstration or become a standard part of car manufacturing.