But why? Human-shaped is not the best shape for making cars. Wouldn’t this be massively inefficient?

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The robots are intended to automate “difficult, unsafe, or tedious” manufacturing tasks, and if they’re found to be viable, they’ll then be deployed in the BMW facility in stages.

“Figure’s robots will enable companies to increase productivity, reduce costs, and create a safer and more consistent environment.”

Car manufacturers like Honda and Hyundai have had a visible presence in the development of walking robots over the years, but attempts at integrating them into the real world are ramping up.

The BMW manufacturing facility in South Carolina is the company’s only US-based plant, where it assembles around 1,500 X-series and XM-series vehicles every day.

Neither company has disclosed how many of Figure’s humanoid robots will be deployed at the facility or what tasks they’re expected to undertake, though Adcock told Reuters that the partnership will start with “small quantities” that will increase if performance targets are met.

The Reuters report also gives a fairly wide window for deployment to allow Figure to train the bots to perform specific tasks — it could take anywhere from 12–24 months for them to actually be integrated into BMW’s manufacturing processes if it does identify a viable use for them.

The original article contains 298 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 35%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!