Why are certain processes in auto manufacturing still not automated yet? For most of the manual work still done by humans, is it a matter of cost or actual technical feasibility?

Question

Watching SUV Superbuild and thinking years back to when Tesla fell far short of the “alien dreadnaught” factory for the Model 3, I’m curious why certain steps in the auto manufacturing process are still done my humans? Like setting the windshield and maneuvering in/installing the center console. Are most of the remaining manual processes still extremely difficult to automate with current technology, or is it just an optimization exercise around cost?

I know stuff like quality control/inspection is inherently not well suited for machines, but I’m referring to the actual assembly work.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The answer is almost always money. Automation is one of those things that quickly spirals into layers of complexity you never expected. It’s extraordinarily expensive to create and optimize an automated assembly line *in the best of cases*.

The things that aren’t automated are usually things that require relatively little labor to do, but are fiddly and failure prone when automated. Lots of QC *is* automated, but certain steps in assembly aren’t, because some things are hard enough to get right (and easy enough to pay somebody to do) that it isn’t worth it.