Toyota to roll out 400,000 humanoid factory robots from 2028
Toyota is preparing a large-scale humanoid robot deployment while insisting the systems will augment, not directly replace, its workers.
Toyota plans to deploy 400,000 humanoid factory robots, starting major investments in 2028, while explicitly stating they are not intended to directly replace human workers. The company will invest about $6.42 billion per year from 2028 to upgrade factories with this new robotic workforce. Of the planned robots, 150,000 are slated for Toyota’s own automotive plants and 250,000 for group facilities that make components and materials. Toyota has already started putting ELEY humanoid robots on assembly lines so they can learn from workers. Employees train these robots in fine motor tasks by wearing jigs modeled on the robots’ fingers so the systems can capture and reproduce the movements.
Why it matters
Toyota is tying a large, long-term capital program to humanoid robots, signalling that human-robot collaboration is becoming part of its mainstream manufacturing strategy rather than a side experiment. With hundreds of thousands of units planned for both car plants and supplier facilities, and workers already teaching ELEY robots fine motor skills on the line, the shift will shape how repetitive and precision tasks are divided between people and machines, even as the company stresses it is not targeting direct job cuts.
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