FedEx CEO Explains Why Regular Humanoid Robots Can’t Get the Job Done

FedEx’s CEO said he wants “super humanoid robots” with a “couple of elbows” to automate processes in his warehouses.

Raj Subramaniam, chief executive of the global e-commerce and transportation company, spoke in an interview with The New York Times, published on Sunday, about his approach to technology.

Speaking about automating certain parts of the delivery process, Subramaniam said that regular humanoid robots won’t be up to the task for FedEx’s warehouses.

“Truck unloading and truck loading are a very difficult problem for robotics to solve — packages come in every size, shape, and weight,” he said.

He added, “We’re not looking for humanoid robots — we’re looking for super humanoid robots, because maybe they need to have a couple of elbows. More degrees of freedom.”

The executive said that FedEx is still in the pilot stage for these robots, and was “not ready for prime time yet.”

Beyond humanoid robots, he said, FedEx was drilling down on AI, training on data from its 17 million deliveries daily around the world to predict delivery times for its customers accurately.

Subramaniam has been the company’s CEO since 2022, acting as the second CEO in the company’s history. FedEx’s stock is up about 11% in the past year.

Other e-commerce and logistics giants, such as Amazon and GXO, have begun testing humanoid robots in their warehouses.

In August, GXO’s chief automation officer told Business Insider that the company was “going really broad and aggressive on the category.”

And Amazon has a fleet of more than 750,000 robots working in its fulfillment process, which help with picking, packing, and transporting packages to loading docks. A Morgan Stanley note in February wrote that the robots could save Amazon $10 billion annually by 2030.

However, Boston Dynamics’ CTO told TechCrunch in 2023 interview that the human form might not be the most ideal for a robot to complete warehouse tasks.