r/machinesinaction • u/Bodzio1981 • 13d ago

Car Factory Robots

Automatic Welding Body Shop, will we lost out jobs some day?

2.1k Upvotes

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119

u/TRDOffRoadGuy 13d ago

They Tooker Jerbs!

-6

u/Chaosrealm69 13d ago

Just try to count how many jobs were taken away in this one shot. All so some executives could get a bigger bonus.

12

u/herpafilter 13d ago

Realistically you couldn't make a car today without this level of automation and still meet expectations for price, quality and reliability. Because your competitors are going to use automation you either do your self or go out of business.

Also, absolutely nobody is looking for these kinds of jobs. Maneuvering a spot welder around a car body is hard work. It's loud, it's hot, it's dangerous and it just consumes your body. These were the first applications of industrial robotics for a reason- it's just not work any human should be doing.

-2

u/Chaosrealm69 13d ago

I look at all the shots of Cybertrucks falling to pieces and low quality of manufacturing and somehow I think they could do with less automation and more people on the line.

10

u/VTOLfreak 13d ago

Bad design is bad design, doesn't matter if a human or a robot is putting it together.

2

u/herpafilter 13d ago

Like I said, there's no way to do that economically. 'bespoke' and 'handmade' cars exist in the form of ultra high end sports cars, but even those still get made with a pile of automation involved. Robots are just better at some things.

Ironically I'd wager that the Cybertruck requires a lot of touch labor. Those infamous boomarang trim pieces appear to be hand applied, for instance. That's probably at least part of the problem; even if the glue were appropriately formulated, and it appears it isn't, poor or uneven application wouldn't give good adhesion.