6.6M views · Mar 14, 2014 · 40:33 · 2 HN recommenders · 5 mentions · discussed 2016–2017
A 41-minute factory tour showing how the BMW i3 electric car is built from start to finish, in the style of a Megafactories documentary. It shows a highly automated production line with carbon-fiber body construction and robots doing most of the work.
Why Hacker News points people here: Cited as a vivid example of modern, highly automated manufacturing with few workers, and of carmakers as robotics companies.
“To me it looks like technology brought by aliens from the future.”HN comment, 2016
“To me it looks like technology brought by aliens from the future.”
Shows highly automated BMW i3 production line.
Here's a video of the i3 production line: this video As can be seen, they are not joking around. To me it looks like technology brought by aliens from the future.
“I can recommend this video”
Recommended factory tour of BMW i3 production.
I can recommend this video: link "Tearing Down the Model T of Our Time - Autoline After Hours 284" and this video "BMW i3 Factory Production Tour"
Cited in an edit to the comment about BMW i3.
Sensationalist clickbait title. There's mention of 4 i-series executives leaving (BMW has over 100,000 employees), which is somewhat expected, given that the article mentions that i sales haven't been stellar. True, I haven't seen too many i models on the streets, but I haven't seen too many of competitor's electric models either. So the market is still not quite ready for them and the manufacturers, I guess, are wary of betting it all on the electric card. Of course there'll be people moving from company to company, just like people from Apple move to Google and vice-versa and it's normal, but the tone of this article is like "BMW is collapsing and everyone is running for their lives... to China". Why is this even in the news ? Press is so unreliable and sensationalist these days .. Or has it always been like this ? Edit: this video
“This is what modern manufacturing looks like, note there aren't many people working there.”
Example of modern manufacturing needing few workers.
America is the 11th richest nation in the world (per-capita), if they wanted to find the money they could do it right now. I'm not saying America doesn't have a balance of trade problem, I just think people put too much faith in a resolution to that. This this video is what modern manufacturing looks like, note there aren't many people working there.
“They build computers with wheels.”
Illustrates car makers as robotics companies.
Respectfully, I disagree. Their tech is not the cars themselves as much as the robots/software building those cars, so they have slowly moved from being car companies to robotics/tech companies. They build computers with wheels. this video While the Americans do have a taste for disruption, these Germans have a taste for getting things done well. The wise thing to do is collaborate, which I hope we'll end up doing sooner or later despite all the barriers that some politicians are trying to raise between us.
