Kia plans humanoid robots in factories

Kia is putting a date on a factory idea that still sounds like science fiction: humanoid robots at its Georgia plant in the second half of 2029, after a first rollout at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in 2028. Kia tied that plan to a broader five-year push in software, automation, and new vehicle platforms announced on April 9. (kiamedia.com) A humanoid robot is just a machine built with two arms, two legs, and a torso so it can use tools and move through spaces designed for people. Carmakers care about that shape because factories already have stairs, carts, shelves, and workstations sized for human workers, not for custom robot cages. (bostondynamics.com) The robot Kia is pointing to is Atlas from Boston Dynamics, the robotics company controlled by Hyundai Motor Group. Hyundai Motor Group said in April 2025 that it planned to buy tens of thousands of robots from Boston Dynamics to expand manufacturing and logistics automation. (bostondynamics.com) That ownership link is the key to this story. Kia is part of Hyundai Motor Group, so the company is not shopping for a random futuristic gadget; it is testing a robot made inside the same corporate family that also runs its vehicle plants. (hyundaimotorgroup.com) Kia paired the robot plan with a timetable for its first software-defined vehicle by late 2027. A software-defined vehicle is a car built so features and functions can be updated by code after it leaves the factory, more like a smartphone than a traditional car. (kiamedia.com) Kia also said it will start urban autonomous driving at “Level 2++” in early 2029, which means the company wants more of the car’s driving work handled by software in limited settings. Putting that next to factory robots shows Kia is treating software as one system that runs both the product on the road and the machines that build it. (worldwide.kia.com) The factory target matters because Kia’s Georgia site is not a lab. Kia Georgia in West Point can build 340,000 vehicles a year and has been one of the company’s main United States production hubs since 2009. (kiageorgia.com) Humanoid robots are being aimed first at jobs that are dull, awkward, or risky, not at the whole assembly line. Boston Dynamics has been showing Atlas doing lifting, carrying, and part-handling motions that fit the kind of repetitive work car plants already break into small steps. (bostondynamics.com) Kia’s robot plan arrived in the same presentation where it cut its 2030 electric vehicle sales target to 1 million from the 1.26 million it gave a year earlier. When demand for battery cars looks softer, companies usually get pickier about costs, and factory automation becomes easier to justify. (reuters.com) The company is still spending heavily while it makes that adjustment. Kia said it will invest 49 trillion won from 2026 through 2030, with 21 trillion won earmarked for future businesses that include software-defined vehicles, autonomous driving, and robotics. (kiamedia.com) So the 2029 robot date is less about replacing a whole factory with androids and more about turning one Georgia plant into a test bed for a new production stack. If Atlas can handle enough real factory tasks in 2028 and 2029, Kia gets a cleaner line between the software in the car, the software in the plant, and the robots moving parts between the two. (bloomberg.com)