Toyota Canada is hiring robots at one of its Ontario plants
A Toyota Canada spokesperson insisted that they aren’t meant to replace human workers
Toyota Canada has entered into a deal with Agility Robotics, an American robotics company, to employ humanoid robots “to support employees with manufacturing, supply chain and logistics operations,” per a story in the Toronto Star today. The humanoid robots can bend and walk, and they can lift and move objects. They will work in Toyota’s Woodstock assembly plant.
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The bot is called Digit, and a spokesperson for Agility Robotics told the Star that Digit’s job will be to “feed totes of automotive parts to the assembly line via loading and unloading an automated tugger. Digit takes empty totes off the tugger, then puts full ones back on.”
A spokesperson for Toyota Canada assured the Star that the robots aren’t meant to replace actual human employees—their jobs aren’t to assemble vehicles, but to handle repetitive tasks that might slow down human workers. “Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada employs 8,500 highly skilled Canadians, and has never laid off a full-time employee in its entire history,” said Michael Bouliane.
In light of recent news that General Motors’ Oshawa plant eliminated 1,000 jobs due to tariff-related layoffs, it’s understandable that automotive sector workers may feel worried.
“We have been adding automation to our plants for 40 years, including more than 500 automated delivery robots we already have assisting with internal logistics,” continued Bouliane, “and this has only resulted in increased employment as we continue to be Canada’s largest automotive manufacturer.”
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
