丰田开发的人形机器人
丰田高管正积极向全球投资者推介公司的机器人战略。其中，作为每年64亿美元投资计划的一部分，丰田将部署40万台机器人，以实现工厂自动化。同时，丰田还将在首席生产官的领导下组建一支专门的机器人团队。
越来越多的迹象表明，丰田正利用过去20年在机器人领域积累的研发经验，将智能机器人推向商业化，并与特斯拉、小鹏汽车和现代汽车展开竞争。这一趋势正引发投资者越来越多的关注。
“我认为，丰田有可能成为全球最大的人形机器人公司，只是他们需要放手去做，”丰田投资者、投资管理公司M&G的卡尔·瓦因(Carl Vine)表示，“谁掌控了软件层，谁就掌控了全球制造业。丰田正在开发自己的大型行为模型……而且由于业务规模庞大，他们在内部拥有海量数据。这些都是关键要素。”
高盛分析师也认同这一观点。他们估计，凭借技术实力和大规模量产经验，丰田到2035年有望占据全球人形机器人市场3%至8%的份额，相当于销售19万台至54万台人形机器人。
特斯拉CEO埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)也曾大胆宣称，特斯拉Optimus人形机器人将成为特斯拉“有史以来最重要的产品”，并设定了长期目标，计划将年产量提升至100万台。目前，该机器人已开始生产，但尚未进入大规模量产阶段。
后来者
在本世纪头十年和第二个十年，本田推出了Asimo人形机器人，软银发布了Pepper人形机器人，使得日本几乎成了机器人的代名词。然而，随着AI崛起，以及中国人形机器人跳舞、打功夫的视频在网上走红，越来越多人认为，日本已经落后于美国和中国。
丰田CEO近健太推动机器人发展
在勾勒机器人愿景方面，丰田是个后来者，其对手也已转向机器人技术，以降低汽车制造成本并寻找新的收入来源。
接近丰田的人士表示，新任CEO近健太(Kenta Kon)上任后，公司突然加大力度宣传其机器人业务雄心，原因在于丰田意识到，自己必须加大努力，才能在工厂生产线上和技术领域与中国竞争。
丰田将有机会于2030年代初在名古屋附近启用新汽车组装厂时引入机器人技术，这是该公司自2012年以来在日本的首家新组装厂。
“负责生产的人几乎不再考虑用新技术来造车了，”一位前丰田高管说，“生产体系现在是与中国竞争的关键之一。机器人是丰田应对中国制造业竞争的一项重要手段。”
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Toyota's human robot.
CEO Toyota is actively promoting company robotic strategies to global investors. As part of its $6.4 billion annual investment plan, Toyota will deploy 400,000 robots to automate the plant. At the same time, Toyota will form a dedicated robotic team under the Chief Production Officer.
There are increasing indications that Toyota is taking advantage of the research and development experience accumulated over the past 20 years in the field of robotics to commercialize and compete with Tesla, Peng and modern cars. This trend is attracting increasing attention from investors.
“I think Toyota has the potential to become the world's largest human robotic company, but they just need to let it go,” Carl Vine of Toyota Investor, Investment Management Company M&G, says, “Who controls the software floor, who controls the global manufacturing industry. Toyota is developing its own large-scale behavioural model... And because of the scale of its operations, they have big in-house data. These are key elements.”
Goldman Sachs analysts share this view. They estimate that, with technological strength and large-scale production experience, Toyota is expected to account for between 3 and 8 per cent of the global human robotics market by 2035, equivalent to the sale of 190,000 to 540,000 human robots.
Elon Musk has also boldly claimed that Tesla Optimus human robots will become “the most important product ever” in Tesla and set a long-term target of increasing annual production to 1 million. The robot has now begun production but has not yet entered the mass production phase.
Later
In the first and second decades of this century, Honda launched the Asimo human robot and soft publish the Pepper human robot, making Japan almost a robot by name. However, with the rise of AI, as well as the rise of Chinese robots dancing and kung fu videos, there is a growing belief that Japan is lagging behind the United States and China.
Toyota's CEO's Nesta drives robotics.
Toyota is a successor to the robotic vision, and its opponents have shifted to robotics to reduce the cost of car manufacturing and to find new sources of income.
According to those close to Toyota, with the arrival of the new CEO, Kenta Kon, the company suddenly increased its efforts to promote its robotic ambitions, because Toyota realized that it needed to do more to compete with China on the production line and in the technical field of the plant.
Toyota will have the opportunity to introduce robotics into the start-up of the new car assembly plant near Nagoya in the early 1930s, the first new assembly plant in Japan since 2012.
“It is almost impossible for those responsible for production to consider new technologies to make cars”, a former Toyota executive said, “The production system is now one of the keys to competition with China. Robots are an important tool for the fight against Chinese manufacturing competition.”
Auto-fetched and translated by AI Gem Box. All rights belong to the original author.