Where has Construction Automation been successful?

schnevets•about 1 hour ago

I remember reading this article about Swedish home manufacturing two years ago, and immediately thought of the Hudson Valley (where I lived at the time) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/08/headway/how-an-american-d...

The Hudson River used to be a main manufacturing artery of the United States but has since become a relic. I still believe that region upstream of NYC could address the housing crisis plaguing the northeast of the United States. Imagine barges of housing components drifting down-river to be assembled in any coastal metro on the Atlantic coastline.

xnx•about 1 hour ago

I wonder how much of home construction efficiency improvements are held back by taste for traditional appearance vs. other cost/performance characteristics.

The difference in styles between residential and commercial construction is probably an example of this. Not many commercial buildings with tar paper shingled roofs.

lotsofpulp•about 1 hour ago

The only reason I can think of that houses don’t usually have metal roofs is because they cost at least double, if not triple. I have seen homeowners use metal roofs, but it’s one of the first cost reductions because a good shingle roof is already good for 30+ years.

For a business, it can make more sense as it might be a more long term structure, plus it would contain more valuable items (or at least cause more loss if business is interrupted).

cortesoft•20 minutes ago

> Construction is famously labor intensive: direct labor makes up close to 50% of the cost of constructing a new single-family home in the US, compared to around 6 to 8% of the cost of manufacturing a car.

Is this only calculating last mile labor, or all the labor along the way? Like, for a car, does it count the cost of steel as purely non-labor costs, or do they factor in the labor cost for mining the ore, etc?

Because I feel like at the end of the day, almost all costs are 'labor' costs, they are just paid by different people/companies earlier in the process. Housing just has a lot of the labor as the final step, assembling the house on site. Cars have more of their labor at earlier stages of the process, and the assembling is mostly automated.

knollimar•about 1 hour ago

You still have to solve all the MEPs so where does that go in your process?

DivingForGold•about 1 hour ago

3D printing of concrete homes ?

wongarsu•about 1 hour ago

I wouldn't put that in the "success" category just yet

xnx•about 1 hour ago

Interesting, but currently more of a novelty.

nsonha•about 1 hour ago

It's kinda ridiculous that we till build walls brick by brick, on site, instead of just building most of the house elsewhere and only assemble at the site.

throwitaway222•about 1 hour ago

Manufactured homes are a thing. You can literally buy one for 100k-300k

tylergetsay•about 1 hour ago

Theres less efficiency here than would be thought. Building codes, technologies, materials, styles, needs etc vary a lot by location.

xnx•about 1 hour ago

If you're interested in the topic, the author writes extensively on manufactured homes.

knollimar•about 1 hour ago

Ever try putting a brick wall on a truck?

edgyquant•about 1 hour ago

Why is this ridiculous?

Where has Construction Automation been successful?

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