Neura Robotics: David Reger's Plan to Make Robots Germany's Next Car Industry

Reger demonstrates the approach by scanning a chair with a camera and turning it into a 3D model. Entire production lines can be captured this way as digital twins, where robots practise before they work in real factories.

From model maker to tech CEO

Reger, 38, grew up with ten siblings in Metzingen, Swabia. After secondary school he trained as a model maker in a foundry and has no university degree. After two years as a social worker in San Francisco, he landed an engineering job in Switzerland following a nine-hour interview, and says he studied day and night to catch up.

The cost to workers

Neura wants to build millions of robots by 2030. One robot, currently priced at around €60,000, can replace several skilled workers because it works around the clock. Reger points to hundreds of thousands of retirements in the coming years and a shortage of skilled tradespeople. On the long-term question of what displaced workers will do, he concedes it is hard to say.

An analysis by the FERI Cognitive Finance Institute and Fraunhofer IPA sees China potentially replacing human labour to a large extent very soon. Germany is "well positioned," says FERI founder Heinz-Werner Rapp, but China's speed and scaling make the field harder every day. Public acceptance will be decisive, the researchers say.

Reger's proposal: have social security funds share in machine productivity. "Why not pay pension and health insurance contributions on robot labour?" he asks. Bill Gates floated a robot tax years ago.