Hyundai discusses deploying Atlas at Czech plant — Korea Herald
Hyundai Motor Group is discussing the possibility of deploying Atlas humanoid robots at its automobile plant in Nošovice, Czechia. The company is holding talks on the matter with Boston Dynamics and Hyundai headquarters, Korea Herald reports.
Atlas is being developed by Hyundai’s U.S. subsidiary, Boston Dynamics. The use of robots on European production lines could serve as a test of their operational reliability, safety, and integration into work processes. No specific timeline for testing on active production lines has been announced yet.
Nošovice plant
The plant, founded in 2009, is Hyundai’s only automobile manufacturing facility in the European Union and a key production base for the company in the region. It produces the Tucson, Kona, and i30 models.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
According to Hyundai, 566 robots operate at the facility — more than twice as many as 20 years ago. Automation has taken over the tasks of about 200 employees, who were transferred to other positions. Petr Michnik, head of the administrative division at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech, said that the company hopes to begin testing and operating humanoid robots in Czechia as soon as possible.
Labor and safety
Experts cited by the publication link interest in humanoid robots in Europe to an aging population, high labor costs, and a shrinking workforce. According to a Eurostat forecast released in 2023, the EU’s working-age population — aged 15 to 64 — will decline by 13% between 2022 and 2060.
Michnik noted that the purpose of introducing Atlas is not only to reduce labor costs, but also to improve production quality and create safer, less physically exhausting conditions for personnel. Expert Chang Tae-woo suggested that, due to stricter European requirements for worker protection and human-robot collaboration, the Czech plant’s trade union will likely discuss Atlas’s impact on production.
