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”

  • etherphon@piefed.world
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    12 hours ago

    Well I guess your high paid CEOs and executives really fucked up then, right? That’s exactly what you were saying? Because everyone else saw this coming from miles away, and we have been clamoring for these kinds of cars for a long ass time, even small gas cars are hard to find now. So what are those guys paid such high salaries for if they are so completely dense…?

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      The only reason these cars are so cheap is because they have no humans manufacturing them and have heavy subsidies from the government.

      Are you really saying you would have been happy to hear that a CEO laid off all their blue collar workers and took government bailout money?

      • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        You think they have no employees at all? BYD had over five times the employees than Ford! And subsidies? In the US, we bailed out our auto sector during the Great Recession and heavily subsidize our auto sector via tariffs. Plus no car plant had been built in a generation without heavy state and local tax breaks and subsidies.

        Seriously. What are you smoking? Cause I want some.

      • etherphon@piefed.world
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        4 hours ago

        No of course I wouldn’t, but then, none of that would be necessary if they were listening to their customers instead of watching their profit margins, paid their workers and executives what they were worth (a lot more and a lot less), not spending a fortune on lobbying against the inevitable future, etc.

    • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      They thought they had captured the market and could get away with anything because there were no other options.

      Now there are options. They fucked around, now they find out.