Robots will make robots at an innovative $150 million (CHF150 million) ABB factory to be built in China, the Swiss engineering group announced on Saturday.

The move is designed to defend the company’s place as the country's largest maker of industrial robots.The factory, to be located near ABB'external links China robotics campus, is due to be operating by the end of 2020. It is billed as a “cutting edge centre where robots make robots” and will produce products for China as well as for export elsewhere in AsiaChina is ABB's number two market after the United States."Shanghai has become a vital centre for advanced technology leadership – for ABB and the world," ABB Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer said in a statement announcing the project.

With the expansion, ABB is banking on Chinese robots sales defying concerns over trade tensions with the United States that some fear could dent demand for electronics, auto parts and other items that require automated manufacturing and robots.China is expanding its robot workforce, as wages for human workers there rise and the country seeks to compete with lower-cost countries via greater automation. In 2017, one of every three robots sold in the world went to China, which purchased nearly 138,000 units, ABB said.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/busines...nghai/44503006

Robots building robots, software designing software....as I have said repeatedly, the goal is to eliminate the bulk of the human workforce. There is no long view as to the ultimate impact on people in the future, it's about dollars today. This is the beginning of the end of this way of life. People really need to start thinking about what comes next.