BMW piloted the use of humanoid robots in its vehicle production earlier this year. A new BBC report reckons that the automaker has seen enough to make putting them into action — on a still-limited scale — later this year.
It’s not the first company to explore humanoid robots in various roles. BMW test-drove robotic workers at the company’s Leipzig plant earlier in 2026. Now two of the robots are set to work more closely in the company’s production setup.
Enter the BMW bot
The robots in question are both Hexagon Robotics’ Aeon humanoids. The Swiss robots should get along well with the German manufacturer’s staff and vehicles, if history is any indication. The Aeon is only largely humanoid. Most of the body conforms to established human patterns, but it’s a wheeled, self-balancing ‘bot. It’s got more than a little Segway in its design DNA.
The upper-body and head-case are where the magic really happens. The Aeon moves at 2.4 metres per second while toting between eight and fifteen kilograms at a time. It’s not bad for a 1.65-metre, 60-kilogram humanoid. Its battery runs for four hours at a time before needing a charge.
BMW used the Aeon’s time in Leipzig to train the humanoids on what they’ll be doing later this year. They’ll be doing basic work. Picking parts for battery production and handing over components to manufacturing machines are their main tasks. The German automaker reckons that, eventually, these critters will be able to watch a human performing a task and, eventually, just take over the work. They’re also expected to respond (also eventually) to voice commands to perform other jobs.
For now, though, Hexagon’s duo are just doing some on-the-job training. It’s obvious that BMW eventually hopes to replace humans in various roles. Hopefully, these will all be the ‘boring’ ones, so staff can spend more time test-driving the company’s vehicles. That’s a thing that happens there at lunch time, right?
