Hyundai Investing $5 Billion To Build More Cars, Steel And Robots In The U.S.
Hyundai is adding $5 billion to its planned investments in U.S. manufacturing over the next three years and it won’t just be building more cars.
The money will support a new steel mill in Louisiana and increased U.S. automobile production, but also a Robotics Innovation Hub that will be able to produce 30,000 units annually.
South Korean president Lee Jae Myung visited President Trump at The White House on Monday to discuss the new trade deal between their countries that includes a 15% tariff on South Korean-made cars imported into the U.S.
Hyundai didn’t specify what robots it would be building, but its factories are highly automated and it also runs Boston Dynamics, which makes humanoid and quadruped robots that have a variety of applications.
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Known as Atlas and Spot, Hyundai is incorporating them into its manufacturing processes. Atlas is being developed to do practically anything a human worker can. It has vision and fine motor skills that enable it to identify and handle parts.
Spot is equipped with a sensor pack and primarily used for plant inspections and safety checks, but can accommodate new capabilities as they become available.
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The robots are primarily focused on commercial uses for now, but will be competing with Tesla’s Optimus when that enters production later this year, according to Tesla’s schedule. BMW has also been testing humanoid robots at its factory in South Carolina.
Hyundai currently manufactures many of its top-selling models in the U.S. at factories in Alabama and Georgia, which the new steel plant will support. The two have a combined annual output of around 700,000 units today, but Hyundai didn’t specify by how much that would be expanded.