5 ms·

China’s robotics lead holy cow.

by bix6 6mo ago

bauerd 6mo ago
[dead]
alex43578 6mo ago
China’s manufacturing lead in a graph
ranger_danger 6mo ago
Don't they have ten times more people than the next highest country (Japan) though?
xnx 6mo ago
It striking, but says nothing about AI.
krona 6mo ago
The graph says "new industrial robots installed", which is a bit misleading. For example the newest BYD factories are still stuffed with German/Japanese robots.
Teever 6mo ago
What's worse is that this the predictable result of a choice that America made decades ago and continues to make. Outsourcing manufacturing capacity to China and letting domestic manufacturing skills atrophy and institutional knowledge die out was a choice that many people opposed but were ultimately helpless to stop because the people making the decisions ignored them and did it anyways for personal gain is how we got here. You'd think that the supply chain shocks that we saw during COVID would be a wake up call that would have jolted people into action. You'd think that Ukraine-Russia war would have been a wake up call that would have jolted people into action. You'd think that the recent failures by the US military in Iran and the depletion of years of missile stockpiles would have been a wake up call that would have jolted people into action. I'm at a loss to explain it. It's like the American oligarchs want to weaken America, or at least are willing to do so if it means that they have greater control over it. Maybe they don't care about manufacturing capacity because they know that America is ultimately a nuclear protected island and that even if things continue to decline they'll be safe to rule it like a king?
- Tanoc 6mo ago
  > It's like the American oligarchs want to weaken America, or at least are willing to do so if it means that they have greater control over it. The capital holders want it under their control. The fact that it harms the state is a consequence they ignore, or worse, believe that other people will deal with. There is not thought given to how much harm will be caused, because the harm is seen as part of the process used to acquire that control. It's the sort of thinking that aligns with beating a dog to teach it not to bark and then ignoring the cataracts that form from the repeated blows.
bsza 6mo ago
They also lead the world in EV production on paper, but in practice a large portion of those numbers might be driven by government pressure, not actual demand [1]. I’d personally take this data with a big grain of Goodhart’s law. [1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-china-ev-graveyards/ https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-china-ev-graveyards/
signatoremo 6mo ago
That's the lead in industrial robot installed. That lead is understandable because of manufacturing concentration in China. Here are 10 top robot makers, none of them are Chinese (*), and five are Japanese: https://manufacturingdigital.com/top10/top-10-industrial-robot-manufacturers https://manufacturingdigital.com/top10/top-10-industrial-rob... (*) Kuka was a top German maker who got acquired by Chinese company Midea recently
charlie90 6mo ago
Plus that graph is the first derivative of industrial robots. the actual # of new robots since 2012 is the area under the respective curves, so a very big lead.

China’s robotics lead holy cow.

by bix6 6mo ago

China’s robotics lead holy cow.

bauerd 6mo ago

[dead]

alex43578 6mo ago

China’s manufacturing lead in a graph

ranger_danger 6mo ago

Don't they have ten times more people than the next highest country (Japan) though?

xnx 6mo ago

It striking, but says nothing about AI.

krona 6mo ago

The graph says "new industrial robots installed", which is a bit misleading. For example the newest BYD factories are still stuffed with German/Japanese robots.

Teever 6mo ago

What's worse is that this the predictable result of a choice that America made decades ago and continues to make. Outsourcing manufacturing capacity to China and letting domestic manufacturing skills atrophy and institutional knowledge die out was a choice that many people opposed but were ultimately helpless to stop because the people making the decisions ignored them and did it anyways for personal gain is how we got here. You'd think that the supply chain shocks that we saw during COVID would be a wake up call that would have jolted people into action. You'd think that Ukraine-Russia war would have been a wake up call that would have jolted people into action. You'd think that the recent failures by the US military in Iran and the depletion of years of missile stockpiles would have been a wake up call that would have jolted people into action. I'm at a loss to explain it. It's like the American oligarchs want to weaken America, or at least are willing to do so if it means that they have greater control over it. Maybe they don't care about manufacturing capacity because they know that America is ultimately a nuclear protected island and that even if things continue to decline they'll be safe to rule it like a king?

Tanoc 6mo ago
> It's like the American oligarchs want to weaken America, or at least are willing to do so if it means that they have greater control over it. The capital holders want it under their control. The fact that it harms the state is a consequence they ignore, or worse, believe that other people will deal with. There is not thought given to how much harm will be caused, because the harm is seen as part of the process used to acquire that control. It's the sort of thinking that aligns with beating a dog to teach it not to bark and then ignoring the cataracts that form from the repeated blows.

bsza 6mo ago

They also lead the world in EV production on paper, but in practice a large portion of those numbers might be driven by government pressure, not actual demand [1]. I’d personally take this data with a big grain of Goodhart’s law. [1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-china-ev-graveyards/ https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-china-ev-graveyards/

signatoremo 6mo ago

That's the lead in industrial robot installed. That lead is understandable because of manufacturing concentration in China. Here are 10 top robot makers, none of them are Chinese (*), and five are Japanese: https://manufacturingdigital.com/top10/top-10-industrial-robot-manufacturers https://manufacturingdigital.com/top10/top-10-industrial-rob... (*) Kuka was a top German maker who got acquired by Chinese company Midea recently

charlie90 6mo ago

Plus that graph is the first derivative of industrial robots. the actual # of new robots since 2012 is the area under the respective curves, so a very big lead.