Queue evil laugh Mr Bond! Foxconn, prominent manufacturer for such companies as Apple and Sony and home to many an exhausted employee, has committed itself to replacing its workforce with 1 million robots. Robots making iPads. I like the sound of that.
Foxconn has already come under a lot of fire, what with all the explosions, suicides, and general mayhem that’s gone down in recent years. So it would seem natural that the firm would want for some good PR, if not just to keep their workers out of harm’s way. So chairman Terry Gou stated on Friday that the company intends to incrementally increase the robotic presence in his factories over the next three. Presently, there are 10,000 robots doing simple, repetitive tasks at the plants. By next year that number will grow to 300 thousand, followed by 1 million by 2014.
It’s hard to say what will become of the workers these robots will replace. But at least they’ll have their health. [Xinhua News via AllThingsD]