Toyota hires seven Agility humanoid robots for Canadian factory

Source: TechCrunch

Deployment at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada

After a year‑long pilot project, Toyota’s Canadian manufacturing subsidiary has hired seven humanoid robots to work in a plant building RAV4 SUVs under a robots‑as‑a‑service deal.

“After evaluating a number of robots, we are excited to deploy Digit to improve the team member experience and further increase operational efficiency in our manufacturing facilities,”
— Tim Hollander, President, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada

The Digit robot is built by Agility Robotics, a firm spun out of Oregon State University in 2015. Digit is designed to operate in industrial environments without humans nearby, often bridging two different automated production lines. In this deployment, the robots will be unloading totes full of auto parts from an automated warehouse tugger.

Industry Context

While seven robots performing manual tasks may seem modest compared to flashy demos, deploying humanoid robots in real workplaces is rare and challenging. Demonstrating capability in a lab is one thing; integrating robots into a company’s workflow—including maintenance and charging—is another.

“When the tech companies spend real time in the field understanding the task that needs to be operated, the real workflows that happen…that’s when we will see a huge uptick in adoption,”
— Ram Devarajulu, VP, Cambridge Consultants (Humanoids Summit, late 2025)

Agility Robotics is among the leaders in moving robots out of the lab. Digits are already used by logistics providers such as GXO, Schaeffler, and Amazon. The company offers a proprietary cloud‑based software platform called Arc for fleet management, and emphasizes that AI will be vital in reducing deployment costs.

“Cost of deployment … can be more than the price of the robot by a lot. AI tools let us decrease that cost of deployment, decrease the amount of time getting the robot configured and getting it operating at a level of performance that they want.”
— Pras Velagapudi, CTO, Agility Robotics (interview, 2025)

Future Outlook

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) and Agility plan to use this engagement to pioneer additional use cases that relieve human workers of repetitive physical tasks and enable them to focus on higher‑value work. The company is also preparing a next‑generation robot that will be safe to operate alongside human workers; current humanoid robots capable of lifting heavy loads are still considered too unreliable for fully autonomous operation around people.

Other Humanoid Deployments

• Figure.AI tested its Figure 02 robots in a BMW factory for ten months last year, unloading 90,000 parts. (source)
• Additional pilots involve companies such as Apptronic, Unitree, Tesla, Boston Dynamics, 1X Technology, and Reflex Robotics.