{"slug": "autonomique-says-backflipping-robots-are-not-the-point", "title": "Autonomique says backflipping robots are not the point", "summary": "Autonomique, a Montreal- and Menlo Park-based startup, has moved its AI-powered robot control technology beyond the pilot phase and is now assembling car parts on a production line at F&P Manufacturing in Ontario. CEO Vikrant Tomar criticized the robotics industry's focus on flashy demonstrations like backflips, arguing they are useless for productivity, as the company focuses on practical automation for manufacturers.", "body_md": "There’s a lot of froth in the “smoke and mirrors show” of the robotics industry right now. At least according to [Autonomique](https://www.autonomique.ai/) co-founder and CEO Vikrant Tomar.\n\n“You will see robots doing backflips or dancing…but it’s useless when it comes to actual productivity, right?” he said in an interview with *BetaKit*.\n\n“You will see robots doing backflips or dancing…but it’s useless when it comes to actual productivity.”\n\nTomar’s startup, based in Montréal and Menlo Park, Calif., wants to be a signal in the noise for manufacturers looking to automate operations. Autonomique announced today that its technology, which uses AI to control robot movements, has moved beyond a pilot phase and is being used to assemble car parts on a production line at a F&P Manufacturing plant in Tottenham, Ont.\n\nF&P, which is the Canadian subsidiary of Japanese automotive parts supplier F-Tech, is using Autonomique’s physical AI software to direct its semi-humanoid robots to assemble chassis and suspension parts, which make their way into vehicles in fewer than four hours.\n\nTomar, who previously co-founded speech recognition startup [Fluent.AI](http://fluent.ai), spun Autonomique out of SRI International (formerly the Stanford Research Institute). The company has offices in Menlo Park and Montréal, and the team is roughly split between both locations.\n\nPhysical AI is typically capital-intensive, but Autonomique integrates its tech into third-party hardware rather than building robots itself. The startup has closed the first tranche of an undisclosed seed round, backed by several Canadian investors with deep tech expertise, including Innovobot, Garage Capital, Inovia Capital, and the co-founders of Clearpath Robotics and Otto Motors. Some of these investors are part of a new Canadian Robotics Council committee to [boost investment](https://betakit.com/canadian-robotics-council-creates-committee-to-boost-investment-in-domestic-robots/) into domestic robots, given Canada’s relative sluggishness on industrial automation compared to other countries.\n\n**RELATED: ****Canadian Robotics Council creates committee to boost investment in domestic robots**\n\nIn an email to *BetaKit*, Neha Khera, managing partner of Innovobot’s IRV fund, compared the physical AI space to the large language model market. “It all boils down to commercial execution,” she wrote. “Autonomique stood out because they are hyper focused on securing commercial partners and solving real business problems.”\n\nThe robot is meant to replace human workers, Tomar said, but workers could be moved to another role overseeing robots, as they are integrated with software that tracks their performance. Labour groups such as the Canadian Labour Congress have raised alarms about AI’s impact on the job market and workers’ rights. Through its recent [AI strategy](https://betakit.com/canadas-ai-strategy-contains-2-3-billion-in-spending-few-details-on-new-privacy-regulations/), the federal government has said that AI will help create jobs, but has provided little detail on how this will happen.\n\n*Feature image courtesy Autonomique. *", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/autonomique-says-backflipping-robots-are-not-the-point", "canonical_source": "https://betakit.com/autonomique-says-backflipping-robots-are-not-the-point/", "published_at": "2026-06-17 14:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-17 14:01:43.949243+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "robotics", "ai-startups", "ai-products", "ai-agents"], "entities": ["Autonomique", "Vikrant Tomar", "F&P Manufacturing", "F-Tech", "SRI International", "Innovobot", "Garage Capital", "Inovia Capital"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/autonomique-says-backflipping-robots-are-not-the-point", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/autonomique-says-backflipping-robots-are-not-the-point.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/autonomique-says-backflipping-robots-are-not-the-point.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/autonomique-says-backflipping-robots-are-not-the-point.jsonld"}}