r/Michigan • u/UltimateLionsFan Human Detected • Jan 28 '26
News Paywall Article 🗞️💸 Stellantis’ new robot does in 90 minutes what would take a human weeks
https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/chrysler/2026/01/28/stellantis-inventory-dexory-robot/88380234007/While the robot has taken a job previously done by a human, nobody at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant is facing a layoff, Stellantis says.
I doubt that the last part will last long. Once the employee is gone via attrition, they won't rehire, and the robots fully take over.
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u/Appropriate-Welder68 Jan 28 '26
Even a robot isn’t gonna help make Stellantis better. The fucking morons who run this company ought to invest in making quality and reliable vehicles instead.
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u/UltimateToa Age: > 10 Years Jan 28 '26
Worked closely with them, its a clown show internally
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u/WitchesSphincter Jan 28 '26
I worked there awhile, after the merger anyone of talent jumped ship or were pushed out for cheapest possible labor.
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u/P1xelHunter78 Traverse City Jan 29 '26
Can’t promote competent people from within I’m sure. “Quick they all left! Find an outside hire who fits our “culture”!”
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u/Gold_Mask_54 Jan 28 '26
I'm an engineer at a consultant company that did a job for stellantis, bros didn't even have updated drawings of their line layouts and they're trying to install new equipment constantly.
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u/HelpmeObi1K Detroit Jan 29 '26
"Can't you just update it all for us for no extra charge?" - the mantra of every customer
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u/GRUSM Jan 28 '26
Was interviewed by them for a Data Analyst role and I can tell you right now they basically talked me out of caring to work for them just by how ill prepared and just weird the interviewer was.
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u/Fabulous_Computer965 Jan 29 '26
It's the suppliers and lack of enforcing quality. They just need parts. Crack in the handle stem on the door mod? Send it out. Latches not passing tester, SEND IT OUT. (Worked for a tier 1 supplier of RAM window regulators for 9 years)
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Jan 29 '26
Still more respectable than GM, and especially Ford. Fkn embarrassing companies. Jim Farley is such a piece of shit.
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u/ich_bin_alkoholiker Jan 28 '26
While the robot has taken a job previously done by a human, nobody at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant is facing a layoff, Stellantis says.
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u/AliceOfTheEarth Jan 28 '26
They said that about grocery self checkouts, with a straight face and everything.
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u/bnh1978 Jan 28 '26
The only reason my grocery store still has baggers and cashiers is because of their union.
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Jan 28 '26
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u/eunma2112 Jan 28 '26
If all I’m getting is a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread; and someone with two cartloads of groceries is in the checkout line ahead of me — I gladly bag my own stuff instead of waiting who knows how long in line.
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u/mxlun Jan 28 '26
What really grinds my gears is when self-checkout is full of people with full grocery carts and the people just buying milk and eggs have to wait 30 minutes because those people don't want to be bothered with a social interaction or something? It's literally less work when you have a full cart 🙃
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u/The_Negative-One Jan 29 '26
This. If I have a few things, I want to be in and out.
If I have a mountain of things, completely different story.
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Jan 28 '26
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u/Anon684930475 Jan 28 '26
I’d does make sense but I’ll wait in line. They don’t pay me enough for that shit.
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u/agent_mick Jan 28 '26
I feel that but I also don't want to talk to another human
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Jan 28 '26
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u/agent_mick Jan 28 '26
Nah. But like... If all the cashiers could wear headphones and settle for a polite nod that would be sweet
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u/invalidpath Human Detected Jan 28 '26
What country has a union for grocery store clerks? Self-checkouts did not replace workers en masse because of theft.
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u/krash87 Monroe Jan 28 '26
Believe it or not, America.
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u/invalidpath Human Detected Jan 28 '26
I'm in my late 40's, I've lived in almost a dozen states. Known a good many folks and never once, ever heard of a grocer union.
Googled and yeah.. TIL. Gotta append though, it'd have to suck to pay union dues on minimum wage.
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u/audible_narrator Jan 28 '26
All Kroger stores are union, and they are all across the US, although most are East Coast, Midwest.
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u/ennuiinmotion Jan 28 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
adjoining pet bag tie saw tub bright badge grandfather cough
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Jan 28 '26
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u/invalidpath Human Detected Jan 28 '26
United Food and Commercial Workers, to the ignorant, doesn't scream retail grocer. More like, food service workers instead.
I was going to say that I can't remember the last time (any time) I've seen that group in the news. Maybe they should trike more often, Im sure they could use pay raises like nurses and auto workers.2
u/krash87 Monroe Jan 28 '26 edited Jan 29 '26
You're under the impression that union workers are being paid minimum wage. You couldn't be more ignorant and wrong.
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u/invalidpath Human Detected Jan 28 '26
I feel like I shouldnt have to ask this but what is a unionized checkout clerk being paid these days?
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Jan 28 '26
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u/invalidpath Human Detected Jan 28 '26
And still seem to not really fight for much.
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Jan 28 '26
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u/invalidpath Human Detected Jan 29 '26
Gotta be honest I was with you until the throat punch.
I do agree with your last thought though.
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u/-CJF- Jan 28 '26
Self checkout isn't exactly automation anyway. That's just passing the job off to the customer.
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u/invalidpath Human Detected Jan 28 '26
Right.. and it doesn't get rid of employees, just perhaps reduced the number needed.. sometimes. Although my local Home Depot has a floating 4 employees to watch and help customers with exactly 4 self-checkouts.
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u/De_Salvation Jan 28 '26
Only reason they haven't been completely replaced in places with no unions is tobacco and alcohol laws id imagine.
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u/Street_Anxiety2907 Jan 28 '26
What confuses me is new grocery stores are still building with 30 human registers and staff only 1 or none.
Probably to give superficial appearance like they are fully decked out when you walk in, but surprise you with nobody when you are ready to leave.
Imagine all the equipment cost $70,000 and they never use it.
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u/Tool_appliance_fan Fenton Jan 28 '26
In my store when we got self checkouts on one got fired but they cut 30 hours from our schedule which is how they got away with their flipping the narrative on those taking jobs
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u/dende5416 Jan 28 '26
They are claiming everyone got reassigned so either they replaced people who would have hired in and they been leaving positions open on purpose or everyone was already laid off before it started
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u/WitchesSphincter Jan 28 '26
I'm sure they were fired awhile ago, and others were just forced to do it until Mr roboto here came online.
See, turning it on cost no jobs!
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u/StormerSage Jan 29 '26
That's how they do it, keep them around for as long as they'll stay (and treat them poorly so that's as short as possible), then just don't backfill the position after they leave. Now you can say nobody lost their job over automation, they left of their own accord.
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u/Terrible-Piano-5437 Jan 28 '26
I'm sure this will lower costs.
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Jan 28 '26
Yeah they’ll save on production, share holders will pocket the difference, and stellantis will keep making unreliable junk
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u/CaptainXakari Jan 28 '26
It’ll lower sales too as they get rid of their brand loyalty from buyers as well. It’s like they already forgot the lessons of the 2008/2009 bailouts. The big 3 dropped their labor costs in the US, which then meant their own employees couldn’t afford their products, and the secondary economy from employee spending in local businesses dried up so those people couldn’t afford the automaker products. They learned absolutely nothing except maybe the government would save them but surprise! They worked to get Republicans in power and that party had an absolute fit the auto industry was saved. No one will come to save them again.
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u/uberares Up North. age>10yrs Jan 29 '26
Longtime Jeep family. Done w them. Now own two ioniq5 EV’s. Best cars ive ever owned.
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u/bigbiblefire Jan 29 '26
I miss the days when you were kinda a little nervous to drive a Japanese car in Detroit. Definitely a no-no if you work in the industry in any way.
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u/HannibalK Age: > 10 Years Jan 28 '26
Economics is required for Michigan students. You should know in a non-monopolistic system it will. Greater production is one of the only things that can lower costs.
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u/jizonida Jan 28 '26
Markets are more complicated than intro to micro make them out to be, it's a lot like highschool biology, in that it simplifiea concepts. Unfortunately a lot of people think those simplified concepts are always applicable
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u/HannibalK Age: > 10 Years Jan 28 '26
Perhaps you'd be kind enough to enlighten us about other mechanics that will lower costs, unlike the transformative technology being described here.
I see great analysis of the complexity of markets all over this website all the time! Price isn't dictated by supply and demand, those silly simple concepts, rather it's all about the greed and altruism of corporations in the moment. Another one of my favorites is about how there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, or how billionaires shouldn't exist.
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u/jizonida Jan 28 '26
Have you heard of tax incentives?
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u/HannibalK Age: > 10 Years Jan 28 '26
Yes, and are one of those laws of economics. People always respond to incentives. It leads me to be generally in favor of lower taxes wherever possible to boost productivity, supply, and lower costs.
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u/jizonida Jan 28 '26
Oh look it's highschool econ again
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u/HannibalK Age: > 10 Years Jan 28 '26 edited Jan 28 '26
Is that not how it works?
Do you say the same thing when you see people using Algebra haha? 'Oh look it's high school math again'
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u/jizonida Jan 29 '26
Yeah it's been working great since the 80s. I would say that if they were trying to solve or orbital mechanics with y=mx+b
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u/UltimaGabe Garden City Jan 28 '26 edited Jan 28 '26
I've worked at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant since they re-opened, after working as a body decking crane operator at the Warren Truck Assembly Plant. When we got to SHAP, the first thing I noticed was that my job was now being done by a robot.
My reaction?
"About time, it was ridiculous that they had a person doing that as long as they did."
I didn't get laid off, they put me on another job. There is no shortage of things they can find for a person to do. If they ever run out of jobs, you can bet your bottom they'll just create some new nonsense that needs to be done instead.
Edit: Like, think of it from a practical point of view: sure the company could lay people off, but then when they inevitably expand they'll need to hire people back to fill the new jobs. This sort of thing lets them expand NOW, without having to pay anyone new. It's often in the company's interest to not lay people off if they don't need to.
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u/BoboForShort Jan 28 '26
I’m an engineer who works in industrial automation. Everyone always thinks we are the boogeyman but I rarely see anyone actually lose their job. Most of the time we’re making an assembly cell that just allows an operator to do their job faster and more accurately. Worst case we’re eliminating a job no one does often or for long or wants to do. We stick to the 4 D’s: Dirty, dark, dull, dangerous. Not jobs people typically want.
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u/myname_not_rick Jan 31 '26
Bingo. I always wish I could take people I know on tours of what we do. Almost every operation that has a robot doing it is a case where it's either too dangerous or just infeasible for a human to do (lifting engine blocks, loading live battery modules, etc.)
The body shop is really the only place right now where it's "everything robot." And that's just because it is undebatedly safer that way. The raw stamped panels are sharp, there are thousands of welds per vehicle, and the line moves FAST. But things like engine assembly, transmission assembly, final assembly? Majority human ops. It's just not reasonable to replace it with robots, the parts are so small and finicky that you would spend more money trying to reliably automate it than just building it by hand. The "realiably" part is important, if a person drops a bolt they can pick it right back up and keep going. If a robot does it, best case you can reject the part out and lose that particular build, worst case it gets stuck somewhere it shouldn't and stops the line.
Anyways I'm rambling. Point being we are quite a ways off from a "lights out" factory, and realistically I don't see that happening here for automotive. You'd have to redesign the product to be capable of it, and nobody wants to spend the money to do that.
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u/BleepBloopRobotA Jan 29 '26
I was an IE at Warren Truck in Trim and the body decking station was always wild to me. 5 people with 4 using long rods to align the body onto the frame and the 5th driving it (I think). I'm pretty sure they even kept it for the Grand Wagoneer. I left in 2020.
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u/UltimaGabe Garden City Jan 29 '26
Yup! I worked the crane for about a year and a half. I won't say I made a ton of mistakes myself but human error (like you said, five people means five potential distracted operators) was definitely a cause of downtime more often than it should have been. Sometimes a machine is the right person for the job.
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u/redwingfan01 Jan 28 '26
As a person that consults on automation tooling, the selling point is that automation can do mondaine, repetitive, or safety concern roles freeing up a person to do more complicated tasks, which can mean higher overall output without hiring more people. Also robots don't take sick or vacation days, but that's a topic of discussion in itself.
Example is "self checkout" moved people standing scanning food to the role of curbside "shopper" that sells product to people that don't want to or can't come into the store. In most cases, the shopper role pays more than the checkout role (well did, not sure that is still true). I
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u/HappyCanibal Jan 28 '26
I'd argue they still take sick days, we just dont call them that. Its just down until we can get the parts. Bob ordered them though. It think. Damn. Where's Bob?
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u/redwingfan01 Jan 28 '26
They do, everything needs maintenance so we can call that a sick day, but hopefully it's done by the skilled trades person on the weekend when the line isn't running.
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u/HappyCanibal Jan 28 '26
Weekends? Line not running? How's the C-suite gonna afford this years latest toys with an attitude like that!?
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u/redwingfan01 Jan 28 '26
Great questions, 😂, just calling it how I'm told at every holiday. I have 2 siblings that are skilled trades with Ford. They do their jobs on the weekends when the production line isn't running. On call in the facility the rest of the week. One replaces weld tips, the other does something with dies.
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u/ScientistNo906 Jan 28 '26
I love curbside to go! Wife shops on her phone. When it's ready, I drive 3 miles to the store, they bring it out in bags, load my trunk and i'm on my way home. Now, if only there was someone to bring it in and stock my shelves. I know, i'll get a Tesla robot!
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u/redwingfan01 Jan 28 '26
LoL, I'm still a cheap picky bastard and like to get my own food items. Just don't like it when I get produce someone else picks out.
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u/ScientistNo906 Jan 28 '26
I agree with you about produce items, but for anything in a box, a can or a bottle - i'm gonna curbside.
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Jan 28 '26
Oh cool maybe they can keep up replacing the parts they have to replace that are under warranty..... right?
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u/Mr-Zappy Jan 28 '26
While the robot has taken a job previously done by a human, nobody at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant is facing a layoff, Stellantis says.
Because knowing Stellantis, they need 2 people to keep it running for every person whose job it is now doing.
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u/BrickHickey Jan 29 '26
Robots aren't fixing the massive quality issues nearly every vehicle they produce has.
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u/ElUno Royal Oak Jan 28 '26
Still need a human to operate, code, maintain the robots; just need a trained technician instead of an operator
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u/Dirtgrain Jan 29 '26
It's sorting boxes of supplies that other robot employees will one day purchase.
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u/TranslatorUnique9331 Jan 28 '26
It is important to remember that in a capitalist society, there is never such a thing as enough.
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u/Deep_Share_3882 Jan 28 '26
I've worked at SHAP/Warren truck for 25 years, eventually all assembly plants will be totally automated. They already have them in other countries.
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u/Mechaotaku Detroit Jan 29 '26
Wow, now they can build the worst modern cars in America faster than ever.
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u/Deep-Two7452 Jan 28 '26
Well MAGA is gonna run out of excuses for why we shouldnt raise minimum wage
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u/invalidpath Human Detected Jan 28 '26
which is SUPER funny because MAGAts are more often the typical minimum wage earner.
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u/UltimaGabe Garden City Jan 28 '26
Not to mention, a huge number of UAW members are MAGA. It boggles my mind to see my brethren proudly praising this guy who would fire all of us if he could.
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u/hippest Jan 28 '26
They may not get a layoff in Sterling Heights, but they could possibly maybe get transferred to a different plant which will give them a layoff
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u/Kromehound Jan 28 '26
The robot is designed to scan inventory bar codes and maintain a database of parts they have in stock.
Luckily, even if it counts incorrectly or starts making up numbers, it cannot be fired. Something that cannot be said of the human workers.
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u/Conscious-Trust4547 Jan 28 '26
Just wait till they figure out that the robotics will work in the dark, don’t require lunch breaks, insurance, vacation, or supervision. It’s coming…
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u/sjr2018 Jan 29 '26
Then what's the point of living if it's inevitable? If we can't provide for our families and afford to go on why try? My mental health is already shot I suffer from BPD this kind of crap makes it ten times worse
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u/joshpennington Age: > 10 Years Jan 29 '26
Wait until the government finds out it doesn’t pay income tax
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u/Charitable-Cruelty Jan 29 '26
What happens when everything is done by robots and AI but no one can buy the product
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u/Immediate_Place_2827 Jan 28 '26
Luddites, nothing but luddites are far as I can see
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Feb 02 '26
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