"The next generation of robotic assembly lines are emerging" (GOOG; AAPL; TSLA; 2317 Taipei)

Readers who have put up with us a while know the back stories: Foxconn which employs over 1.1 million people manufacturing products for Apple and others is in the midst of adding a "Million Robot Kingdom"; Google has acquired eight robotics companies; Google and Foxconn recently announced a manufacturing collaboration and finally Tesla has very quietly become the most automated of all auto companies.
Here are the various threads wrapped up by GigaOm:

Summary: Robots are delivering the next generation of assembly lines and manufacturing, and it’s coming out of Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley has sometimes had a hard time creating manufacturing innovation (or at least scaling it). But some of the most cutting edge tech companies that have successfully emerged from the Valley in the past few decades are now focused on using sophisticated robotics and AI to help reinvent manufacturing and assembly lines.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Google has quietly been working with Apple supplier Foxconn on robotics technologies that could help Foxconn speed up robot deployment at its factories. Google has been acquiring and amassing robotic technology and talent over the past year and the WSJ article reports that former Android creator Andy Rubin has been talking to Foxconn about integrating one of Google’s robotic acquisitions within its manufacturing lines and assembly lines.

Foxconn — the gadget assembly behemoth with more than a million workers — is the perfect testing ground for Google’s electronic assembly line robotics tech. And as Foxconn shifts over to increasing automation, it will be the canary in the coal mine for how the automation of assembly lines will affect economies and populations....MORE

One thing not mentioned is that Foxconn will manufacture the bulk of the robots they will be purchasing, thus simultaneously becoming both the world's largest robot manufacturer and the world's largest end user.
Also, unlike the robots at the Solyndra factory, these do not play recordings of Disney's "Whistle while you work"

Previously:
Foxconn Begins Installing First 10,000 Robots (AAPL)
Here's the Robot that Foxconn Will Use to Build Their Million-strong "Robot Kingdom" (ABB; AAPL)
Tesla: Elon Musk's Robot Army (TSLA)
"Foxconn Working With Google on Robotics"
And many more.