When AI, a high -ranking launch of a humanoid robot, announced a commercial agreement with BMW at the beginning of last year, it was a signal for investors and the rest of the robotic industry that the young company was one of the innovators defeating this top sector.
Recent comments from the founder of the character and CEO of Brett Adcock, along with the videos produced by companies, gave the impression that the new era of Robo-production was firmly at hand. A closer look at the details of the partnership, however, reveals a much more modest affair-at least at the time-which suggests that the workforce to build cars can be as hypes as reality and which raises questions about the sincerity of Adcock's comments.
Until March, the robot of the character at the South Carolina factory was operated only within an hour outside, practiced pickup and placing parts in the plants, according to BMW-I spokesman when ADCOCK boasted in February that the “fleet” of humanid robots to perform “end operations”. Recently, the same robotic work has moved to live production hours, but includes a single character robot that does the same limited job, the spokesman said.
BMW refused to comment on the differences between what Adcock promoted in February, and what the automobile giant said was reality at the time, and these questions referred to Adcock. The serial entrepreneur and representatives of the company did not respond to requests for clarification or comment.
Questions come because science fiction as humanoid robots have a moment. While Elon Musk's focused efforts to build Humanoid called Optimus inside Tesla played a central role in building hype For Factor Futuristic forms excelled in the business agreement FICT as one of the first deployments in the real world in the US brought up More than $ 700 million from its 2022 establishments from investors, including Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel Capital and Jeff Bezos through its investment company. Reuters informed in February AI picture tried to get another $ 1.5 billion The valuation is approaching $ 40 billion.
They all launched other technological giants, from NVIDIA to OpenAi Initiatives focused on robots As expectations create for a potential market opportunity that ARK management has followed a trillion dollars in the Bull Report last fall. Agility Robotics, which has fulfilled an agreement for its own humanoids to move containers inside the Spanx Apparel warehouse is Reportedly increases $ 400 million. This comes after Apptronik and Sunnyvale in California, based in California, based on Apptronik and Sunnyvale, California, recently received $ 350 million and $ 100 million.
When the picture announced the partnership of BMW in January 2024, press release He described the agreement as a staged approach based on “milestone”. While the picture referred to the “commercial” agreement, none of the parties published the financial conditions or the duration of the agreement.
How many droids do the “fleet”?
Among the mechanical bipped by a piece of cake is one of the sharpest looking. Compared to some of the larger or clumsy droids created by other companies, matte and black picture 02 model reduces an elegant figure, with six eyes for eyes, on -board AI and hands enough to pour a glass of milk.
In February Adcock reminded his LinkedIn The network BMW was founded a year earlier, wrote: “We signed our first commercial customer, BMW, a year ago,” LinkedIn Post read. “We currently have a fleet of robots performing end-to-end operations.”
At that time, I reached out on BMW to try to get more details about the robot fleet and what the end-to-end worked. To my surprise, however, BMW spokesman Steve Wilson said that only one character robot was working in their race at the South Carolina Motor Show, and that he picked up the humanoid and maneuver parts “during non -production hours”. When it is pressed later, Wilson would not say whether these one robot tests were caused by the fact that there was only one lonely figure in the factory, or whether the automaker had more humanoids that alternated the practicing tasks.
He added that “very soon, the character's robot will start to load parts for short intervals during live production,” but refused to offer a more specific timeline. It would be a similar job to a job that was tested in an out of lessons, but in a real production environment.
Working on a production that would eventually explain how the humanoid would stand up that Wilson would include a single robot that performs a single task at the moment, and the metal tin panels will eventually assemble to form a vehicle chassis. According to Wilson, the robot would pick up “parts with two hands from the logistics container and put parts on the accessories” into the contained cell, where another type of robot “would start welding parts together”. It sounded like a much more limited job than “End-to-end operation” that Adcock said his droids were already doing.
At the beginning of March, adcock Discussed the BMW Agreement in an interview at a conference. “Actually, we have to run them every day now,” he said about humanoids. “Today there are running in their largest plant.” It is not clear whether BMW has since begun to use FICT robots for production work, but although this was the case, the description of Adcock again tightens the scope of the project compared to what the BMW official described.
Turn the music!
On Monday, AdCock published a new video on LinkedIn, which explained that the character Humaniod is now officially carried out by production work at the BMW factory. “BMW X updates,” said CEO. “It's not a test – that's how autonomous robots look like in production operations. Turn the music up!”
The video actually displayed the type of work described by the BMW official – the robot's character loading metal pieces from the mobile shelf and then passed them into a working cell where they place them on accessories in the preparation for welding with another automated device. The robot of the second character stood besides the task before the video detected to show a highly automated plant that currently plays a small role.
Was it the second robotic part of the “fleet” that Adcock described, and would he go into action when the first humanoid ran out of juice? Or was it just marketing props? BMW would not say, and the character does not answer questions.
No one, especially BMW, deny that the partnership with the picture is real, nor that the luxury car brand tests the use of a humanoid robot in one of its plants. In fact, Wilson, a BMW spokesman, said the company will reveal more details during the onsite press action in May.
But the seeming inconsistencies in such a high -ranking and potentially key business raise unpleasant questions for industry, which still needs to prove that it is more than just a glossy demo of videos and founder -powered hype. As for humanoids, as with humans, trust is crucial.
Are you a current or former AI or BMW employee with thoughts on this topic or a tip that you can share? Contact Jason del Rey at jason.delrey@fortune.com, jasondelrey@protonmail.comor through the applications for sending messages signal and WhatsApp on 917-655-4267. You can also contact him is linkedin or at @Delrey on X, @Jdelrey on fibers and to the blues.
This story was originally listed on Fortune.com
