Foxconn almost ready to deploy 10,000 robotic workers

Neowin reports manufacturing giant Foxconn is about to roll out 10,000 robots on its assembly lines to replace human workers and save costs. The robots are entering the final stages of testing and could be deployed very soon.

It seems the rollout of these robotic workers didn't go as well as planned though, the robotization of Foxconn was first announced in 2011 and back then the company boasted that it would be able to roll out 1 million "Foxbots" over the next three years. We're three years later now and with the first 10,000 still in testing phase it seems the hurdles were much bigger than anticipated.

Each robot apparently costs upwards of $20,000 to create, but for a company which boasts a workforce of 1.23 million, assembly line robots could be very well worth the steep price tag. Foxconn is still in the midst of a long-term public relations crisis, after numerous allegations of employee mistreatment and multiple cases of employee suicide. Since robots don't feel emotion, Foxconn won't have to worry about providing basic human rights to the 1 million robotic workers it eventually plans to roll out.