The Robot That Tests Car Buttons by Pressing Them 50,000 Times

Gif: WIRED Source: Delphi

People tend to keep their cars a long time—as long as a decade or so. And many of those cars come with a warranty good for, you guessed it, 10 years, or 100,000 miles. That means the hardware and software that goes into modern vehicles—the dozens of computers, infotainment systems, and all the accompanying buttons—must be built to survive a long life on the road.

Many of those systems come from Delphi, a supplier that’s been working with automakers almost as long as there have been automakers. Before it sends anything new to the GMs and Toyotas of the world, Delphi beats and batters it to ensure it’s up to snuff. Sometimes, that requires long hours in the lab, checking components for electromagnetic compatibility. Or it means subjecting parts to extreme vibration and temperatures ranging from -40 to 221 degrees Fahrenheit. And sometimes, it means pushing a button tens of thousands of times.

No one wants that job, which is why there are robots. This one, at Delphi’s facility in China, is repeatedly hitting a button to open a cubby designed for a center console, then closing it again. For tests like these, Delphi will run 10,000 to 50,000 cycles, depending on the component and client demands. Each cycle takes ten seconds (we’ve sped it up, since your time is more important than this robot’s), and a little back-of-the napkin calculation indicates this ‘bot will spend 28 to 139 hours on this task alone.

Other robots get more complicated assignments: In one test, Delphi programs the ‘bot to press buttons on, say, an infotainment system, in rapid, random sequences to ensure the software doesn’t freeze or require a reboot while on the road.

So the next time you push a button in your car and everything works as it should, thank this guy.