Mitsubishi Motors to Mass-Produce AI Humanoid Robots Next Year

▲ Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors (right), and Hiroya Masuoka, CEO of Highlander, pose for a photo after a press conference announcing their collaboration in Tokyo on July 9.

Mitsubishi Motors plans to begin mass-producing AI-equipped humanoid robots at its factories in the first half of next year, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

Mitsubishi Motors announced the plan at its Tokyo headquarters on July 9 and unveiled a humanoid robot developed by Highlander, a robotics startup in which it has invested.

The robot stands 175 cm tall, is capable of stable bipedal walking, and can assess situations on its own to grasp and transport objects with its five-fingered hands.

While the core graphics processing unit (GPU) is a product of the U.S. company NVIDIA, most of the other components are made in Japan.

Mitsubishi Motors intends to mass-produce 1,000 units per month on an idle production line at its Kyoto plant. The robots will first be deployed in its own factories, with plans to sell them to external customers later.

"This will be a highly effective means to solve the labor shortage problem," said Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors.

The global automotive industry is currently engaged in intense competition to introduce humanoid robots to address labor shortages.

Toyota Motor has test-deployed robots from a U.S. company at its Canadian plant, while Germany's BMW has already completed the deployment of robots in its factories.

According to the market research firm Fuji Keizai, the global market for humanoid robots is expected to reach 650 billion yen (approximately 6.08 trillion won) by 2030, about five times its current size, and grow to 3.5 trillion yen (approximately 32.7 trillion won) by 2035.

Currently, the United States and China are leading in the development of humanoid robots.

Companies selling humanoid robots have already emerged in China, and the U.S.-based Tesla plans to begin sales as early as next year.

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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