The Industrial Revolution ushered in a monumental shift from hand production to machine-operated production powered by steam engines. Decades later, Henry Ford invented the assembly line, dramatically lowering the cost of a Model T and placing car ownership within the reach of average Americans.<\/p>\n
But Anduril cofounder Palmer Luckey<\/a> thinks production can go a step further. In a conversation with Andreessen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon at a16z\u2019s Founders Summit, the billionaire predicted AI will make manufacturing so cheap the cost of a car will drop thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n \u201cI really do believe that in our lifetimes you\u2019ll be able to go buy something that\u2019s like a Ford F-150 for $1,000,\u201d Luckey said. \u201cThe cost of extracting and transforming it will go to near zero, and we\u2019re going to compete the margins way down. It\u2019s just not that crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n The tech founder predicts producing and recycling vehicles will become so cheap, cars could become seasonal purchases.<\/p>\n \u201cI bet you\u2019ll be able to recycle [a car] with 90% efficiency at the end of the season,\u201d Luckey said. \u201cYou\u2019ll say, \u2018What\u2019s my summer car going to be? Let\u2019s go down to the mall and buy one and try it out.\u2019\u201d Luckey also said this efficiency will extend to homebuilding as inputs such as steel, wood, and energy grow cheaper.<\/p>\n As the creator of the Oculus Rift VR headset and cofounder of defense products firm Anduril, Luckey has spent years at the cutting edge of technology. He\u2019s bullish on AI\u2019s economic potential, citing its ability to drastically cut costs and streamline business.<\/p>\n The Anduril cofounder predicts AI will upend the economics of manufacturing, adapting current streamlined processes for things like clothing production to larger projects, like building a car or a house.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what you\u2019re going to see is that same level of automation that has dominated textiles and agriculture [will] start to apply to everything,\u201d Luckey said. \u201cAI is going to make it easier for resource extraction, processing, and manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>\n Luckey paints a sunny picture for the future of the production chain amid the AI era. Some manufacturing firms have already reported a higher return on investment from AI implementation. Rockwell Automation\u2019s 2025 State of Smart Manufacturing<\/a> report found generative AI or causal AI had the biggest ROI for 15% of manufacturing firms last year, with many firms using the technology to address worker shortages, safeguard against cybersecurity risks, and to manage supply chains.<\/p>\n But while AI is playing a tangible role in some manufacturing processes, it\u2019s still far from lowering costs. The average cost of a vehicle in the U.S. hit a record high of $50,080 in 2025, according to Kelley Blue Book<\/a>, a vehicle valuation company. Housing prices have also remained<\/a> stubbornly high, with median home prices in the U.S. hitting a high in 2022 and remaining above $400,000 over the past several years.<\/p>\n Luckey said, though, it\u2019s not the inputs that are keeping costs up. He said he thinks the government is the factor that\u2019s keeping prices sky-high.<\/p>\n \u201cThe components are not expensive,\u201d Luckey insisted. \u201cIt\u2019s the transformation and the regulation that have made it really expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n For Luckey, the path toward radical affordability depends less on new scientific discoveries and more on overcoming policy bottlenecks.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what I mean when I say we don\u2019t need technological breakthrough so much as we need to just do things,\u201d Luckey said. \u201cThe tech to do this is going to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n