Toyota orders workers to train humanoid robots but says humans won’t be replaced

丰田要求员工培训人形机器人，但称不会取代人类

Toyota workers are already helping to train humanoid robots as part of the automaker’s race to eventually deploy 400,000 factory robots—but a Toyota executive said the robotic push is not meant to directly replace humans. 丰田的员工们已经在协助培训人形机器人，这是该汽车制造商计划最终部署 40 万台工厂机器人竞赛的一部分。但丰田的一位高管表示，此举并非旨在直接取代人类。

Starting in 2028, the Toyota Motor group aims to start investing $6.42 billion every year in upgrading factories with the new robotic workforce, according to Nikkei Asia. The company wants to put 150,000 robots in its own automotive plants and deploy another 250,000 at group company facilities that produce various components and materials. 据《日经亚洲》报道，丰田汽车集团计划从 2028 年开始，每年投入 64.2 亿美元用于工厂升级，以引入新的机器人劳动力。该公司希望在自有的汽车工厂部署 15 万台机器人，并在生产各类零部件和材料的集团公司设施中再部署 25 万台。

Toyota has already begun deploying some of its ELEY humanoid robots across assembly lines to learn from human workers. Nikkei Asia reported that workers are teaching the robots, which roll around on wheels, to perform tasks requiring precise hand movements by wearing “jigs” based on the humanoids’ fingers. 丰田已经开始在装配线上部署部分 ELEY 人形机器人，以向人类员工学习。《日经亚洲》报道称，工人们通过佩戴基于人形机器人手指设计的“夹具”，来教导这些依靠轮子移动的机器人执行需要精确手部动作的任务。

That naturally raises questions about the future of the Japan-based automaker’s human workforce, which has 18,000 veteran workers across 60 factories worldwide, including 11 US manufacturing plants. But Hiroki Nakajima, a Toyota executive vice president, told Nikkei Asia that the company aims for “a world where robots coexist with humans, rather than replacing them.” 这自然引发了人们对这家日本汽车制造商人类员工未来的担忧。目前，该公司在全球 60 家工厂（包括 11 家美国制造工厂）拥有 1.8 万名资深员工。但丰田执行副总裁中岛裕树（Hiroki Nakajima）向《日经亚洲》表示，公司的目标是创造一个“机器人与人类共存，而非取代人类的世界”。

It’s unclear how many robots Toyota has already deployed overall or how many of the new robots will be humanoids. But the automotive industry has been a leading adopter of industrial robots for decades, with such robots typically being robotic arms installed at workstations and mobile robots that move components or materials around. 目前尚不清楚丰田总体上已经部署了多少台机器人，也不清楚其中有多少新机器人会是人形机器人。但几十年来，汽车行业一直是工业机器人的主要采用者，这些机器人通常是安装在工作站的机械臂，或是用于搬运零部件和材料的移动机器人。

China alone deployed 2 million industrial robots in 2024, with Japan coming in second at 450,500 robots, according to the International Federation of Robotics. The United States and South Korea ranked third and fourth with 34,200 robots and 30,600 robots, respectively. 根据国际机器人联合会的数据，仅 2024 年，中国就部署了 200 万台工业机器人，日本以 45.05 万台位居第二。美国和韩国分别以 3.42 万台和 3.06 万台排名第三和第四。

The automotive industry’s turn toward humanoid robots is a more recent trend that goes beyond specialized industrial robots. Companies are betting that humanoid robots can eventually become general-purpose, autonomous robots that can handle many different tasks and fit more easily into workplaces already designed for humans. 汽车行业转向人形机器人是一个较新的趋势，其意义已超越了专门的工业机器人。各家公司押注人形机器人最终能成为通用型自主机器人，能够处理多种不同任务，并更容易融入已为人类设计的办公场所。

But many AI and robotic hardware challenges remain, along with operational challenges such as safety around humans, before humanoid robots can be deployed more widely. It is also unclear how cost-effective such robots will be compared to employing human workers, and robotic companies have only recently begun to attempt mass production of humanoid robots. 但在人形机器人能够更广泛地部署之前，仍存在许多人工智能和机器人硬件方面的挑战，以及诸如人类周边安全等操作层面的挑战。此外，与雇佣人类员工相比，这些机器人的成本效益如何尚不明确，且机器人公司也是近期才开始尝试人形机器人的大规模生产。

Still, the automotive industry is likely to continue deploying more robots as it retools assembly lines to produce electric vehicles and other modern vehicles that incorporate more computers and chips. Automakers are also grappling with certain skilled labor shortages and an aging human workforce—although the push to deploy more robots and AI has generated backlash from labor unions concerned about layoffs and pressure on worker compensation. 尽管如此，随着汽车行业重新调整装配线以生产包含更多计算机和芯片的电动汽车及其他现代车辆，该行业很可能会继续部署更多机器人。汽车制造商们也正面临熟练劳动力短缺和人类员工老龄化的问题——尽管推动部署更多机器人和人工智能的举措，已经引发了工会的强烈反对，他们担心这会导致裁员并给员工薪酬带来压力。

Many automakers are developing or investing in their own humanoid robots, including Chinese electric vehicle makers such as Xpeng and Nio. South Korean automaker Hyundai plans to begin deploying Atlas humanoid robots developed by its US robotics subsidiary Boston Dynamics starting in 2028, with the goal of having up to 25,000 such robots in Hyundai and Kia plants worldwide over the next few years. 许多汽车制造商正在开发或投资自己的人形机器人，包括小鹏和蔚来等中国电动汽车制造商。韩国汽车制造商现代汽车计划从 2028 年开始部署其美国机器人子公司波士顿动力（Boston Dynamics）开发的人形机器人 Atlas，目标是在未来几年内，在全球的现代和起亚工厂中部署多达 2.5 万台此类机器人。

On September 21, Boston Dynamics announced it had launched a new robotics training center at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, an electric vehicle production facility in Georgia. That facility is designed to help train the Atlas robots on tasks such as sequencing automotive parts and placing the components in the correct order for assembly. 9 月 21 日，波士顿动力宣布在位于佐治亚州的现代汽车集团 Metaplant America（一家电动汽车生产设施）开设了一个新的机器人培训中心。该设施旨在帮助培训 Atlas 机器人执行诸如汽车零部件排序以及按正确顺序放置组件以进行装配等任务。