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Inside China's Robotics Revolution by automation company headquartered in Shanghai,

is a tall, heavy-set man in his mid-forties, with square-rimmed glasses.

His everyday manner is calm and understated, but when he is in his element, up close with the technology he builds, or in business meetings discussing the imminent replacement of human

workers by robots, he wears an exuberant smile that brings to mind an intern on his first

day at his dream job. Gucci makes the machines that install wheels, dashboards, and windows for many of the top

Chinese car brands, including BYD and Neo.

He took the name from the Chinese word Gucci, steadfast intelligence, though the fact that

it sounded like an Italian luxury brand was not entirely

unwelcome.

For the better part of two decades, Chen has tried to solve what, to him, is an engineering problem,

how to eliminate, or, in his view, liberate, as many workers in car factories as technologically

possible.

Late last year, I visited him at Gucci headquarters on the western outskirts of Shanghai.

Next to the head office are several warehouses where Gucci's engineers tinker with robots

to fit the specifications of their customers.

Chen, an engineer by training, founded Gucci in 2019, with the aim of tackling the hardest

automation task in the car factory, final assembly, the last leg of production, when all the composite

pieces, the dashboard, windows, wheels, and seat cushions

come together. At present, his robots can mount wheels, dashboards, and windows onto a car without

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