If Robots Can Build Our Cars, Why Don't They Service Them?

Robots may be able to assemble your car, but they aren’t going to be servicing it anytime soon. Automation has made many industrial occupations irrelevant over the last few decades. Machines have even begun entering the fast-food industry and proven themselves adept line cooks. So then why aren’t they changing your oil?

The technology is available but implementing it is too damned expensive and slow. No machine yet qualifies as a “full-service” device, so centers would have to purchase multiple rigs and keep someone on staff to operate them — not exactly cost-effective. However, as those machines come down in price and gain in number, we’ll begin seeing them put into use more and more. Eventually, you’ll be returning to the servicing department to complain about a robot ruining your car instead of an inexperienced mechanic. But when?

According to a recent study from the McKinsey Global Institute, roughly half of today’s labor-intensive jobs would be occupied by machines by mid-century. Although, that could come a decade sooner or later — depending upon economic conditions, how quickly the necessary technology is ready, and how fast businesses adopt it.

“The timing might not be as near term as some people might imagine,” Mehdi Miremadi, co-author of the report, explained to Automotive News.

Miremadi examined the servicing tasks dealerships are responsible for and found that between 30 and 50 percent of the work currently being performed by flesh could be done by steel in the future. “Technology has to be cost competitive with human labor, and right now technology in its current form is simply too cost prohibitive,” he said. “Also remember the economy has to make room for the new jobs and skill sets that will be necessary to operate and program these machines.”

Hunter Engineering has developed several automated systems for service centers, including an automatic tire mounting machine that costs in excess of $30,000.

“Eight, ten years ago, when we were designing the Revolution machine, we were looking at a tech having to use a pry bar to physically remove the tire,” explained Kaleb Silver, senior product manager at Hunter. “The technician did a lot of the work there and made a lot of the movements. The machine reduced the risk involved in changing that tire.”

At present, most automated tire mounting devices cost more than many of the cars they would be servicing and still require some level of human involvement to function properly. They also aren’t any faster than someone who really knows what they’re doing with a set of hand tools — making them less desirable in certain instances. Hunter says the machines they decide to produce depends largely on what kind of return on investment a business purchasing them could expect.

“An oil-change robot would have been twice as valuable 10 years ago as it is today, because 10 years ago you changed oil twice as often,” Silver said.

In Asia, partially automated oil change stations are cropping up in parking lots. Roughly the size and shape of vending machines, the devices allow scooter-owners to vacuum out dirty oil and replace it in one easy step. It doesn’t replace the filter but provides a physical example of where things are heading.

Collaborative work between humans and machines will likely remain the norm for some time. We already see this on the assembly line. Robotics are wonderful at repetitive tasks but need someone to provide oversight and fill in where you can standardize the experience.

“Jobs that are dirty, dull or dangerous; in the industrial realm, that’s where we sell robots,” says Claude Dinsmoor, general manager for general industries and automotive segment at industrial robot manufacturer Fanuc Robotics America. “And when we look at a service bay, it’s not much different than a general assembly area of [an auto assembly plant], although it may not be as clean. But I’m seeing a lot of the same tools.”

Dinsmoor says he anticipates task-specific robots that would work alongside technicians rather than replace them.

“You still have to have the people around. That’s going to be the key driver in the service area,” Dinsmoor said. “If you put the robot in front of the car or the wheel, it can find the tire and the lug nuts easy enough. Fluid fill becomes an opportunity [for automation]. Those tasks don’t take much time for a person, but if you could automate those tasks, that frees up time for the person to do higher-level work.

“I think they’re going to look different, and they’re going to be built with a purpose in mind. It’s not going to look like C-3PO. It’s going to look more like R2-D2 — something that’s purpose-driven,” Dinsmoor says. “After 35 years in the robotics industry, we learn every day how sophisticated people really are.”

[Image: Yonkers Honda/ Flickr ( CC BY-SA 2.0)]