Toyota Targets 400,000 Factory Robots from 2028, Led by Wheeled Humanoid Eley

Toyota has laid out one of the largest factory automation programs on record: roughly 400,000 robots deployed globally from 2028, backed by annual automation investment that could reach JP¥1tn (US$6.4bn).

The deployment plan

Of the 400,000 units, 150,000 robots will go into Toyota's own plants, with 250,000 deployed across group company facilities. That scale matters. Toyota operates 60 factories globally, so this is not a pilot program — it is a fleet-level retrofit of the production system.

Eley: reliability over bipedalism

The flagship machine is Eley, a humanoid that weighs 50 kg and uses two-fingered hands rather than a full humanoid grip. Eley moves on wheels powered by battery or cord — a deliberate trade-off toward proven reliability, contrasting with the bipedal approach pursued by rivals such as Tesla's Optimus and Figure.

Training is equally pragmatic. Eley learns by observing Toyota workers wearing finger-shaped jigs modelled on the robot's hands, generating training data directly from demonstration rather than depending on simulation. At a briefing at Toyota's European headquarters, Eley achieved near-perfect T-shirt folding accuracy after 1,500 practice sessions over two weeks.

Capturing takumi expertise

Toyota employs 18,000 veteran "takumi" workers whose expertise it intends to capture as training data. The plan also calls for robots to help train new human employees, not just learn from existing ones.

"We aim for a world where robots coexist with humans, rather than replacing them," said Executive Vice President Hiroki Nakajima.

Two decades of groundwork

This is not a new direction. Toyota has been developing robots for more than two decades, from the Human Support Robot to the Welwalk rehabilitation exoskeleton and the teleoperated T-HR3 humanoid. More recently, Toyota Research Institute has developed Large Behavior Models using diffusion-based generative AI to teach physical skills from human demonstration. Separately, Toyota has partnered with Agility Robotics to deploy bipedal Digit robots at sites including Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.

Meanwhile, Hyundai's Boston Dynamics-built Atlas robots will be deployed at its Georgia plant from 2028 — setting up a direct contest between wheeled, multi-form-factor designs and bipedal platforms on real factory floors.