Fear of humanoid robots spurs human workers to strike at Hyundai auto factory
Fear of humanoid robots spurs human workers to strike at Hyundai auto factory
对人形机器人的恐惧促使现代汽车工厂工人罢工
Thousands of unionized Hyundai auto workers began walking off the job early after negotiations with the South Korean automaker broke down over plans to deploy humanoid robots—the most significant pushback from organized labor so far over the latest wave of robotic automation. 由于与这家韩国汽车制造商关于部署人形机器人计划的谈判破裂，数千名现代汽车工会工人提前离岗。这是迄今为止有组织劳工对最新一波机器人自动化浪潮最重大的抵制行动。
The partial strike at Hyundai’s automotive production complex in the city of Ulsan in South Korea represents “the car industry’s first factory stoppage addressing humanoid robots,” according to The Wall Street Journal. 据《华尔街日报》报道，现代汽车位于韩国蔚山的汽车生产综合体发生的这次局部罢工，代表了“汽车行业首次因人形机器人问题而引发的工厂停工”。
Workers have already ended their day and night shifts two hours early at the world’s largest automotive plant from July 13 through July 15, and plan to start staging four-hour strikes from July 20 to 22 after 15 rounds of negotiations failed to reach an agreement, The Korea Times reported. 据《韩国时报》报道，在经历了15轮谈判仍未达成协议后，这家全球最大的汽车工厂的工人们已于7月13日至15日期间，将日班和夜班提前两小时结束，并计划从7月20日至22日开始举行四小时的罢工。
Union pushback began as soon as Hyundai Motor Group unveiled the latest version of the Atlas humanoid robot, a twolegged robot that stands at more than 6 feet tall and can lift more than 100 pounds, at the start of this year. 工会的抵制始于今年年初，当时现代汽车集团发布了最新版 Atlas 人形机器人。这是一款双足机器人，身高超过6英尺（约1.83米），能够举起超过100磅（约45公斤）的重物。
Atlas is made by Boston Dynamics, the US robotics company that is about to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Hyundai. Hyundai aims to deploy more than 25,000 Atlas robots across various Hyundai and Kia manufacturing plants, according to The Korea Herald. It plans to start with its US factories in 2028 but has not disclosed a timeline for deploying elsewhere. Atlas 由美国机器人公司波士顿动力（Boston Dynamics）制造，该公司即将成为现代汽车的全资子公司。据《韩国先驱报》报道，现代汽车的目标是在现代和起亚的各个制造工厂部署超过25,000台 Atlas 机器人。公司计划于2028年首先在美国工厂开始部署，但尚未披露在其他地区部署的时间表。
Each Atlas robot costs an estimated $130,000 but may pay for itself within about two years of operations, according to Samsung Securities Co. analyst Esther Yim in a Bloomberg interview. If the robot cost eventually falls to $100,000, James Hong at Macquarie Securities Korea Ltd. suggested that its operational cost could fall below the US federal minimum wage of $7.25 and significantly undercut a typical auto worker’s salary. 三星证券分析师 Esther Yim 在接受彭博社采访时表示，每台 Atlas 机器人的成本估计为13万美元，但可能在运行约两年内收回成本。麦格理证券韩国有限公司的 James Hong 指出，如果机器人成本最终降至10万美元，其运营成本可能会低于美国联邦最低工资标准（每小时7.25美元），并显著低于普通汽车工人的工资。
The Hyundai Motor union representing more than 39,000 South Korean workers has responded by demanding that the automaker shift production workers’ hourly pay to a fixed salary to protect against any automation-driven reduction in work hours, along with raising the worker retirement age from 60 to 65, The Wall Street Journal reported. The union has also sought bigger worker bonuses. 据《华尔街日报》报道，代表超过3.9万名韩国工人的现代汽车工会对此做出回应，要求汽车制造商将生产工人的时薪改为固定工资，以防止因自动化导致的工时减少，同时要求将退休年龄从60岁提高到65岁。工会还寻求提高工人的奖金。
Hyundai is just one of many automakers attempting to deploy humanoid robot workers. Tesla is developing its own Optimus robot for use in its electric vehicle factories, and BMW has been running pilot tests with humanoid robots made by Figure AI at its automotive plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Multiple Chinese automotive companies such as leading EV maker BYD are also trying out humanoid robots and sometimes developing their own. 现代汽车只是众多试图部署人形机器人的汽车制造商之一。特斯拉正在开发自己的 Optimus 机器人，用于其电动汽车工厂；宝马公司也一直在南卡罗来纳州斯帕坦堡的汽车工厂，对 Figure AI 制造的人形机器人进行试点测试。包括领先的电动汽车制造商比亚迪在内的多家中国汽车公司，也在尝试使用人形机器人，有时甚至会开发自己的产品。
This is also part of a broader automation trend with a long history, given how the global automotive industry has been a leading adopter of industrial robots, such as large robotic arms, for decades. More than 1 million robots were already in automotive factories around the world by 2021 and accounted for one-third of robots across all industries, according to the International Federation of Robotics. 这也是更广泛的自动化趋势的一部分，且历史悠久，因为全球汽车工业几十年来一直是工业机器人（如大型机械臂）的主要采用者。据国际机器人联合会统计，到2021年，全球汽车工厂中已有超过100万台机器人，占所有行业机器人总数的三分之一。
The United States had deployed 38,000 industrial robots as of 2025, with the automotive industry alone having installed 13,500 units. Unlike industrial robots that are usually designed to perform one specific task, some robotics companies are pitching humanoid robots powered by the latest AI models as being capable of eventually doing a wide variety of tasks while fitting more easily into workplaces designed for humans. 截至2025年，美国已部署了3.8万台工业机器人，其中仅汽车行业就安装了1.35万台。与通常设计用于执行特定任务的工业机器人不同，一些机器人公司正在推广由最新 AI 模型驱动的人形机器人，称其最终能够执行多种任务，并能更容易地融入为人类设计的办公场所。
Such a vision will require overcoming multiple challenges in AI training and hardware development before humanoid robots can become general-purpose robots working autonomously in workplaces or homes. 在人形机器人能够成为在工作场所或家庭中自主工作的通用机器人之前，这一愿景还需要克服 AI 训练和硬件开发方面的多重挑战。
The test case at Metaplant America
Metaplant America 的测试案例
Hyundai plans to first put the Atlas humanoid robot to work at Metaplant America, an electric vehicle factory located outside of Savannah, Georgia, starting in 2028. Hyundai may face less organized pushback on that initial deployment because the US workers at the Georgia factory are not unionized. However, United Auto Workers (UAW), the union representing about 400,000 autoworkers across the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico, has been attempting to organize workers at Hyundai’s Georgia facility. 现代汽车计划从2028年开始，首先将 Atlas 人形机器人投入到位于佐治亚州萨凡纳郊外的电动汽车工厂 Metaplant America 使用。现代汽车在最初的部署中可能面临的组织性抵制较少，因为该佐治亚州工厂的美国工人尚未加入工会。然而，代表美国、加拿大和波多黎各约40万名汽车工人的全美汽车工人联合会（UAW）一直试图在现代汽车的佐治亚工厂组织工人。
Metaplant America is already considered the most heavily automated automotive factory in the United States. The facility has more than 850 robots unloading auto parts, stamping out steel components, putting together car frames, and installing car doors, according to IEEE Spectrum. It also uses 300 automated guided vehicles to carry auto parts to the appropriate work stations while avoiding human workers. 据《IEEE Spectrum》报道，Metaplant America 已被认为是美国自动化程度最高的汽车工厂。该工厂拥有超过850台机器人，负责卸载汽车零部件、冲压钢制组件、组装车架和安装车门。它还使用300台自动导引车（AGV）将汽车零部件运送到相应的工作站，同时避开人类工人。
Boston Dynamic’s famed four-legged robot, Spot, has also been deployed onsite to perform “exterior quality inspection” at Metaplant America’s weld shop. During a July 2026 visit to the facility, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter described seeing the Spot “robotic dogs probe their sensor-embedded noses to sniff out defects.” 波士顿动力公司著名的四足机器人 Spot 也已被部署在现场，在 Metaplant America 的焊接车间进行“外观质量检查”。在2026年7月的一次参观中，《亚特兰大宪法报》的一名记者描述看到 Spot “机器狗用它们嵌入传感器的鼻子探测并嗅出缺陷”。
The Atlas humanoid robots would start out by sorting and organizing automotive parts when they first deploy to Metaplant America in 2028. But Jerald Roach, a general assembly executive at Hyundai’s Metaplant, told The AJC that the humanoid robots won’t pose a threat to the human workforce. Roach described human hands with their sense of feel and touch as being necessary for handling soft car parts such as hoses, wires, carpets, and trim panels. 当 Atlas 人形机器人于2028年首次部署到 Metaplant America 时，它们将从分拣和整理汽车零部件开始工作。但现代 Metaplant 的总装主管 Jerald Roach 对《亚特兰大宪法报》表示，人形机器人不会对人类劳动力构成威胁。Roach 称，人类的手具有触觉和感知能力，对于处理软性汽车零部件（如软管、电线、地毯和装饰面板）是必不可少的。
Hyundai has also committed to employing 8,100 human workers in full-time roles at Metaplant America by 2031 as part of its economic development deal. 作为其经济发展协议的一部分，现代汽车还承诺到2031年在 Metaplant America 雇佣8,100名全职人类员工。