And, a recent tour of one of the Asian powerhouse’s vehicle plants has proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt, at least to Honda President and CEO Toshihiro Mibe.
“We have no chance against this,” Mibe said upon a visit to a Shanghai parts factory, commenting on its seamless automation across all levels of production. Logistics, procurement and all aspects of the process were so automated, in fact, that he did not spot a single human worker on the supplier’s floor.
Ford executives saying even three years ago that China was way ahead of the game
Toyota’s CEO has likewise said regarding not just his company, but the industry in general, “unless things change, we will not survive”
Maybe you should have kept up and innovated instead of just trying to stifle your competition and enshittify your products idiots.
But think of the short-term shareholder value! Have you no decency?
I do not.
ok
Maybe the workers at Toyota, Ford and Honda should take control of these plants. They would run it better without the capitalist leeches squeezing out every ounce of profits into their own pockets.
Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the shareholders‽
I’m curious what exactly this means. . . Are they taking raw materials in one door and finished cars out the other? Because that seems unlikely, would be impressive tho.
China’s robotics/automation is next level. They have gigapresses to form the car body in one step.
The bigger question is if we can’t manufacture shoes in the west, why not just design cars instead of making them as well?
That’s capitalism.
¯\(ツ)/¯
Time for bailouts and layoffs!
That’s US capitalism.
Maybe even another war!! We could just try to take those factories. We deserve them, as a treat.
“We took zero action to compete and relied on protectionism and other forms of corruption to stay in business knowing that China was pulling ahead, we refused to plan for the future and harvested all the money for our owners instead and now we’re fucked unless you bail us out! Not the owners, of course, who could afford to bail us out, they will continue siphoning money even though they’re clearly incompetent, we need your taxes” … How about no?
Yes, but there also is a legitimate issue related to staffing.
Everyone should be in unions, but unions ARE going to fight this level of automation to the bitter, as it will result in job cuts. In this particular instance, I think if you cut the CRO compensation to 0 they’d still be in trouble against some of these factories that automate almost the entire process.
This is the kind of “machines coming for your jobs” that’s realistic. AI may be a bunch of vaporware, but this stuff is different.
Capitalists sound strange when they are faced with actual competition. That’s… kinda the whole point guys.
“We insisted on fossil fuels and now Chinese electric car companies are eating our lunch, boo hoo”
Cry more fat capitalists
“Beautiful, clean coal!”
Cold Take:
Good. They don’t deserve to survive. Demand will ensure industry bounceback and stability long term, at least nationally as new buniesses fill the void and labour recovers. Mind you, the US industry will probably never compete globally again having collectively chosen to just lag behind technological trends toward efficiency and sustainability to appease fossil fuel entanglements. These companies made the decisions they did not to adapt at a critical turning point and this is the result, and their current rhetoric is an artifact of decades of coddling by a lopsided nanny state spoon-feeding subsidies and bailouts to shitty investors and executives with garbage management practices at the expense of public services and infrastructure. There is no too big to fail, that’s capitalist coping propped up by a corrupt and captured economy that THEY lobbied for.In short, get fucked, and take your CEOs with you.
This depends on the strategy. If China lowered the prices and waited for the US car makers to go bust, they could then raise the prices as high as they want. US manufacturers would eventually continue production, but things would need to be automated for them to be competitive.
Personally, I think they should allow China to sell small cars in the United States. It’s a product that isn’t currently sold on our market.
I completely agree, and frankly I think most working class people would welcome the access regardless of where the manufacturing is being done, because the need of transportation isn’t going away. In an actual free market Chinese EVs simply would be adopted due to the compltete lack of a comparable product with reasonable pricing, or alternatives, which is part of why you’re seeing the market shifting in Canada, not that it’s an actual free market either but it is being helped by a response to aggressive US imperialism. The US market is artifically ‘free’ and constantly manipulated, so I’d think it’s more likely administrators will cling to the albatross of legacy manufacturing and prop it up to the detriment of the economy and general quality of life for the working class to appease fossil fuel interests. This is what extreme isolationism gets you I guess; The big auto manufacturers bought in to the regime selling tarrifs as some kind of cheat code to their industry dominance extending eternally, which to me suggests their leaders and inverstors are desperate or delusional. I’d like to see more of a move toward mass transport systems investment and infrastructure personally, but the required shift in ideology in the political and governing space is definitely not there right now. Change can come fast, but hope is also scarce in this current staus quo.
I just rented a car while on vacation and they gave me a perfectly fine Nissan Qashqai, except there was a problem with the car so I could not use it. The rental agency only had one car left, a BYD Seal hybrid.
What a fun car to drive. Had a lot of power, great handling, cameras and sensors everywhere for navigating tight spots, and since I was driving on the wrong side of the road, those came in handy.
I am sure that driving a brand new RAV-4 would be a similar experience, but after I was done with that car I searched its price range and competition, and the #1 car was in fact the Toyota Rav 4, and the comparison had that car out ahead due to resale value and initial quality, with the BYD Seal leading on price point, standard features, and battery range (which was significantly higher) among other categories.
I have a feeling that resale value and initial quality might be a shifting category, as well. Really impressed by that car.
I wonder how much of the US problems stemmed from unionized labor pushing against extreme automation (dark factory).
There’s no doubt companies got complacent but I imagine foreign manufacturers are abliged contractually bound to employee American folks in their plants.
What is a union supposed to do when your entire industry is in a “adopt (by accepting automation) or die” situation?
I’m all for worker protection and rights but how else do you compete in this landscape?
The unions’ original demand was worker ownership, which actually fixes the problem. This is the compromise that the original owning class suggested, it’s not the unions’ failt that it was a fuckup.
China will soon, or prolly has already, be the number 1 country. US oligarchs are just focussed on getting richer instead of trying to advance humanity technologically.
A nation can enrich it’s elites in the short term at the expense of its people, or it can invest in its people (education, commons, etc) at the expense of its elites.
The west, and especially my cesspool the US has made its choice.
China has been heavily building up its commons and infrastructure in the same 40 year span the US has let its commons and education fall into utter ruin in order to sell economically segregated education and gated communities for private profit.
The US is culturally indoctrinated to be hostile towards the very concept of society. Imagine resenting paying into universal healthcare because you don’t want to accidentally pay for your countrymen’s “bad decisions” like… Eating food.
I go on Rednote quite a bit. The US attitude towards China, just like non pure crony capitalism is “they are evil and from hell” for being a society. Their people, not their politicians, their people, are sweet, intelligent, and mostly treat Americans with an “are you guys OK? We’ve heard (true) horror stories.”
Thats humanity. Why would I want my schaudenfreude and greed ruled cesspool to “win?” It’s not about winning, it’s about the wellbeing of ALL your people. If the US dominates the world culturally, all that would mean is that humanity stands for “fuck you I got mine” at which point I have no comradery with my species whatsoever.
Actual human worth/value is measured in empathy for one another, which makes the US destitude in what matters.
Not my portfolio!
But I thought super capitalism would allow markets to self regulate, motivate competition, and weed out low performer. Isn’t that a good thing anymore?
Also, I’m laughing at “unless things change, we will not survive”. That might be the change happening, buddy.
I mean, they’ll survive on brand name alone. I personally wouldn’t buy a Chinese EV, they’re too new to the market and I don’t know how well they last. I know that Toyotas and Hondas last well (if you buy the correct model)
