Hikrobot x BMW Group

Hikrobot is a Chinese machine vision and autonomous mobile robot (AMR) company headquartered in Hangzhou and a subsidiary of [Hikvision](/companies/hikvision). Founded in 2016, it develops a tripartite product matrix spanning machine vision, articulated robots, and mobile robots (LMR, FMR, CTU, CMR, HMR) for intralogistics and smart manufacturing across automotive, lithium battery, photovoltaic, 3C, retail, pharmaceuticals, and e-commerce. The company has shipped over 10 million machine vision units and 200,000+ mobile robots, ranking first globally in AMR shipments according to Interact Analysis, and is pursuing an IPO spin-off from Hikvision on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange ChiNext board

BMW Group is the global automotive manufacturer whose Spartanburg plant hosted the world's first publicly-documented production-scale humanoid robot deployment in automotive manufacturing. Headquartered in Munich and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, BMW operates a global production network across more than 30 sites in 15 countries, producing BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce vehicles. Following the completion of an 11-month Figure 02 pilot at Plant Spartanburg in November 2025, BMW formalized its physical-AI strategy through the establishment of the Center of Competence for Physical AI in Production, headquartered in Munich, and expanded humanoid deployments to Plant Leipzig in Germany with AEON robots from [Hexagon robotics](/companies/hexagon-robotics). Milan Nedeljković, the executive who led BMW's humanoid program from the Spartanburg pilot through the Leipzig expansion, became BMW Group's CEO effective May 14, 2026. BMW's editorial significance is its phased multi-vendor humanoid evaluation strategy. The company has structured its physical-AI deployment as a deliberately staged path, theoretical assessment, laboratory testing, initial test deployment, full pilot, and has run completed pilots with two different humanoid vendors (Figure AI bipedal, Hexagon Robotics wheeled) across two continents (US and Germany). The leadership transition that brought the humanoid-program executive to the CEO role in May 2026 is a meaningful corporate signal: humanoid integration is now a CEO-level priority at one of the world's largest automotive manufacturers.