Inside China’s ‘dark factories’ where robots run the production lines • FRANCE 24 English

It may seem like a normal industrial building, but a look inside this Chinese factory provides a glimpse into the future of the car making industry. Here, almost all the lights are off, yet the assembly lines are working at full speed. Nearly everything is automated with only a handful of employees vastly outnumbered by hundreds of robots. This dark factory can produce up to,200 electric cars a day and requires almost no lights or heating. Another instance of machines replacing humans designed to maximize profit. We realized that employing people was getting increasingly costly and for this type of work which involves a lot of repetitive tasks, humans are more likely to make mistakes than machines. This car making plant is one of hundreds of similar factories across China that were specifically designed to let robots do the work. This is the control screen. We can see all of our production lines and at the moment 296 cars are being built. Every vehicle is represented by a different symbol and color giving a global view of operations. I think that a company that’s 100% managed by robots and AI is the future of our sector. But even robots aren’t perfect and require regular maintenance. Here, a single faulty machine can bring the entire operation to a halt. And while humans remain a necessary presence, the factory employs seven times fewer people than a traditional car making plant. Our job is just to help the robots when they’re doing the welding. We just double check. It’s a big change compared to my previous job. In one of the facto’s rare litup spaces, vehicles are submitted to a final check before being shipped to retailers.

China is expanding highly automated factories where robots outnumber workers and operate with minimal lighting. One car plant can build up to 1,200 electric vehicles a day, cutting labour costs and reducing errors. Humans are still needed for maintenance and final quality checks, but staffing is seven times lower than in traditional plants. France 2 has this report.
#China #robots #DarkFactories

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34 comments

  8. Western countries always get really ill about technological advancements in China or India this article just highlights it. They cannot digest that China is living futuristic in present dispensation whereas they are unable to do so but relying on liilgeal immigrants.

  22. That’s very good. Maybe that could help to have again factory in Europe… only one problem, if you don’t have employee who will buy your product at the end… in terms of technologie this is a dream in terms of sales and economy a nightmare…

  29. All fun and giggles until someone loses a limb or two in that dark. In a western country they would sue for millions, in China they instantly get replaced by another human "robot".

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