Sanctuary AI announced that it will deliver its humanoid robots to Magna's manufacturing facility. Austria-based Magna manufactures and assembles cars for Europe's top automakers, including Mercedes, Jaguar and BMW. As is typical with the nature of such deals, the parties have not disclosed how many Sanctuary AI robots will be installed.
The news follows similar deals announced by Figure and Apptronik, which are piloting their own humanoid systems with BMW and Mercedes, respectively. Agility also announced a deal with Ford at CES in January 2020, which revealed the American automaker is considering using Digit units for last-mile deliveries. Since then, Agility has put that capability on the back burner and focused on warehousing deployments through partners like Amazon.
Meanwhile, Magna invested in Sanctuary AI in 2021. This was around the time Elon Musk announced plans to develop humanoid robots to work in Tesla's factories. The company would later call this system “Optimus.” Vancouver-based Sanctuary unveiled its proprietary system, Phoenix, last May. The system is 5’7” tall (a pretty standard height for these machines) and weighs 155 lbs.
While Phoenix isn't Sanctuary's first humanoid (early models were introduced in retail stores in Canada), he is the first to walk on legs. This is despite the fact that most of the available videos only highlight the torso of the system. The company is also focusing some of its efforts on creating dexterous hands. This is an important addition if the system is expected to extend functionality beyond moving around a tote.
Sanctuary calls the pilot a “multidisciplinary evaluation that uses Magna's automotive product portfolio, engineering and manufacturing capabilities to improve robotic cost and scalability.” and a strategic equity investment by Magna. ”
As always, these agreements should be construed as pilots. These are not exact validations of form factors and systems. We'll find out later if Magna gets what he wants in the contract. It comes down to his three big letters: ROI.
The company did not provide details on the number of robots, the pilot period, or even the specific factories where the robots would be deployed.